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MONTPELLIER - Tonga have made two changes and one positional switch in the forwards to take on England for a quarter-final berth at the Rugby World Cup at Parc des Princes in Paris on Friday.
Hale T-Pole returns from suspension to take on the blindside flanker role, while Viliami Vaki shifts to lock to replace Paino Hehea, who is out of the tournament with a shoulder injury.
Lisiate Fa'aoso takes over from Emosi Kauhenga at right lock in the other change.
"We have already made a big achievement for Tonga to get this far and it is very important for the boys, this is going to be history in the making and I know they will be throwing everything into this game," coach Quddus Fielea said on Wednesday.
Outside centre Epeli Taione, who said playing against England would be personal for him after his long club career for Newcastle and Sale, said it was a massive game for Tonga.
"We are well aware that we are facing a totally different England side," he said.
"They are the world champions and they have made a big improvement since the start of this competition," he said.
"We have to focus on our performance and it's a massive game for us, we have nothing to lose and we're going out there to give it our best shot."
For many of the Tongans it will be their fourth game in three weeks at the tournament, but inspirational skipper and openside flanker Nili Latu said the players were keen to back up for the big match with England.
"I guess, it's part of the job and our physio and team doctor have done a great job to help us recover and we know the last three weeks have been hard but our team is very buoyant and we're ready to go physically," Latu said.
England revived their hopes of reaching the last eight with a 44-22 victory against Samoa in Lens here Saturday, recovering from their 36-0 thrashing by South Africa.
Latu said the difference between Samoa and Tonga was that the Tongans had the ability to play at a sustained level for longer periods.
"The difference between us and Samoa is that we play for the full 80 minutes or even more, I think Samoa was in the game for most of the time against England until the last 10 minutes," he said.
"We know England are among one of the best teams in the world and we have to play the full game and we have taken out a lot of confidence from the last few weeks and we're going to try to put it all together this Friday."
- AFP
