THE Tonga under-20 team convincingly beat Cook Islands after scoring eight tries to win 50-12 during their U20 Oceania Rugby Championship at the ANZ Stadium in Suva yesterday.
Tonga’s fullback Viliami Kaufisi recorded a hat-trick followed by their elusive open side winger Hufangahau Latu whose surging runs secured him two tries.
Despite Tonga’s dominance, the Cook Islanders refused to stay down and defended bravely against some very devastating runs and hit-ups by the Tongans.
The brave Cook’s sustained some heavy injuries for their bravery and was applauded by their coaching staff for their efforts.
They managed to run in two tries to inside centre Gene Te Amo and reserve back Henry Tetini who score their final consolation try in the second half.
Cook Islands coach Stan Wright said their players played a better game than they did against Fiji.
“We went through some periods there where we held on to the ball and kept them scoreless for a while but then again it shows the difference between the three different unions and we will learn from that,” Wright said.
Meanwhile Tongan head coach Tuivaita Ueleni said despite their win they needed to work much harder than that if they were to have any chance in beating Fiji.
“We lacked continuity in our game and we also needed to work in some other areas of our set-pieces before next week’s game against Fiji,” Ueleni said.
Tonga will now face the Salimoni Ravouvou-coached Fiji U20 side at the same venue next week.
