England yesterday held off an astonishing late fightback from Tonga to reach the final of the Rugby League World Cup for the first time in 22 years with a 20-18 victory in Auckland.
The English appeared to be coasting into the title decider against defending champions Australia at Lang Park in Brisbane next week when they held a 20-0 lead in the 72nd minute of the semi-final.
However, the Tongans, roared on by the majority of the crowd at the sold-out Mt Smart Stadium and with Jason Taumalolo at his best, hit back with tries from Tevita Pangai Jr, Siliva Havili and Tuimoala Lolohea to pull within two points.
Photo: AFP
With their dream of becoming the first tier-two nation to reach the final within their grasp, Tonga battered away at the tiring England defenders only for Andrew Fifita to have the ball stripped out of his hands to end the match with a knock-on.
Fifita picked up the ball and crossed the line, as was his right after a one-on-one strip, but the referee decided not to refer the play to the video official.
“It was a tough loss to take,” Tonga captain Sika Manu said. “Throughout the whole tournament we’ve played for the whole 80 minutes and we showed that again today.”
England lost the 1995 final to Australia 16-8 and last won the trophy as Great Britain in 1972.
Modern history would suggest they only won the right to finish runners-up to 10-time champions Australia on Saturday next week and the effort they expended in holding the Tongans out for so long would have delighted the watching Kangaroos.
Winger Jermaine McGillvary notched his seventh try of the tournament to open the scoring in the ninth minute with fullback Gareth Widdop and center John Bateman also crossing to give them a lead that looked enough until Tonga’s late rally.
“It was one of the greatest games I’ve ever played in,” said Man of the Match Widdop, who converted all three tries and kicked a penalty.
“We fought right to the end and we got the victory. Defense is the cornerstone of what we do and we need to take that into next week’s match,” he added.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but