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PARIS - Tonga are one victory against defending champions England from a historic place in the World Cup quarter-finals, a remarkable transformation for the small Pacific island nation.
"We have one more left, one against England. It's going to be another hard one but if we keep believing in what we have been doing we have a good chance of winning," captain Nili Latu said on Sunday.
"I said to the boys it's all about hard work. Let's just concentrate on ourselves. It's a test, it's about going about our job," he told reporters following Tonga's narrow 30-25 defeat by Pool A winners South Africa in Lens on Saturday.
"This is the best Tongan team we have ever pulled out. We got all the players we wanted from overseas teams and we are trying to keep rugby (in Tonga) alive," Latu said.
Latu had told Saturday's post-match news conference that the difference between this Tonga side and their predecessors was that they thought about their own game rather than trying to prevent opponents from playing theirs.
Tonga, who have played at all the World Cups except 1991 when they failed to qualify, have never progressed beyond the pool stage.
They had already won as many matches at France 2007 as in their previous four appearances before giving South Africa a big fright in Lens. They beat the United States 25-15 and upset Pacific rivals Samoa 19-15.
Lock Inoke Afeaki, a veteran of the 1995 and 2003 tournaments, said of the deciding pool match against England on September 28: "It's good for us, it's an all-or-nothing situation, as it should be at a World Cup.
"(England) struggled to put any points up against South Africa, so we have strengths that they don't have," he told reporters. The Springboks crushed England 36-0 in Paris.
"We just need to tidy up our game just a wee bit, there's nothing dramatic we need to put into our game, and I think they (England) will be nervous, they should be." Afeaki added.
"We've got more firepower, a good game plan and if they don't turn up and play as best as they can, they know they'll be on the back foot."
- REUTERS
