Tonga loses to Canada 36-27

After watching 3 replays of the Canada-Tonga game the striking revelation was the inability of the 'Ikale Tahi players to recognize that the opponents were deliberate in their vouch to distract the Tongans from playing their usual effective game plan. They were lured into a trap and they blindly fell into it - head first. It is a tactical trick that has been played on Tongan teams time and time again and sadly at most times the boys are just too d... not to see it. This common weakness is present at at all level of Tongan rugby as team officials are not addressing the issue seriously enough. That was the red card. So unless and until the issue is addressed accordingly Tonga players will continue to look stupid when they fall easily into those cheap tricks of the palangis.

With the yellow cards no one can ever justify any of the related fouls as they were dangerous, late and obviously intended.

Dear Editor...please kindly post this follow-up comment to your report of last Saturday's rugby match between Tonga and Canada:

It comes to a point that losing to Canada is no longer a joke but a reality for the Tongans. Three loses in a row now (?) and only two wins out of 7 total test matches between the two countries? When will the Tongans ever going to learn about playing against the Canucks? How many more loses are the Tongans willing to take before they realize that they actually are losing to an ice-hockey mad-crazy nation?

The rugby match last Saturday once again was a clear example of how an opposition team exposed the disciplinary weakness of the Tongans, and when the Tongans lost their cool, the opposition maintained their composure and took advantage of their opportunity especially when the Tongans were one man-short, and in the case of last Saturday's match, 3-men short at one point during the game. To play a rugby game with just 12 men is simply ridiculous, but that's exactly what the Tongans found themselves in last Saturday. The Tongans need to figure out how they can impose their physical style of rugby on their opposition and still be able to maintain their composure particularly in the heat of the battle.

For so long now, the Tongans seem to underestimate that the Canadians too are embracing the physical aspect of the game. They may not be known for producing thundering tackles as the islanders love to do on the world stage but the Canadians are well aware of the fine line between a hard tackle and a vicious tackle. And that's exactly how one of the Canadian players was taken out by a stretcher last Saturday. We would argue about that tackle if the Tongan tackler was red-carded, but he wasn't. At least that dangerous tackle clearly deserved a yellow card. The Canadian player after passing the ball was clearly in a defenceless position when the Tongan tackler, without wrapping his hands, clearly came up high and hard with a shoulder-charge on the Canadian's upper body, above his shoulder and possibly into his jaw as well. The red-card incident on the other hand again illustrates stupidity on the part of the Tongan player who was sent out. In that incident, the referees with the help of the players themselves were able to hold the altercations that occurred for a few seconds. Then just a few seconds later and a few words being exchanged, one of the Tongans decided to take the matter further by knocking one of the Canadian players down. The referees huddled, and may not have been able to identify the true culprit of the initial altercation in the first place, and the punch after the whistle however made it easy for them to identify and send the Tongan player out of the game. This incident reminded me of a similar offence during the 1999 World Cup game between Tonga and England. Remember that one? What a shame. It was no different last Saturday.

Anyway, my point is: the Tongans have too much talents to lose in the manner they did to a team like Canada. With all due respect to the Canadians, there is a reason why Tonga is known in World rugby. It has, and will continue, to produce high-quality, first-class and very talented rugby players. The Canadians however deserved their wins. Like last Saturday they battled hard against the Tongans and kept their composure when the Tongans didn't and consequently capitalized on it to win the game. That could have been their game plan! While the Tongans lost their cool, and consequently the game, they at least still showed what they are made up of – they played with their hearts and almost pulled out the improbable had there was a few more minutes to play in the game. In short, the Tongans desperately need to figure out how they can keep their cool and be professional at all times, and maintain their bland of islands rugby that combines raw talent, physical power, and excitement. That’s clearly something they can control rather than wasting too much energy and air in complaining about the outsiders’ false perception of them as rugby players.