Rugby World Cup: Tonga rejoices

Delerious Tongan fans celebrate the win over France. Photo / Paul Estcourt

All of Tonga was celebrating last night after its team delivered one of the biggest upsets in Rugby World Cup history.

In doing so, they left a crushed French team humbled on the field of Wellington Regional Stadium. The score was 19-14. Some French players appeared to be in tears as they wandered, desolate, amid overjoyed and celebrating Tongan players.

There are few upsets comparable in the tournament - Tonga was rated 13th in the world at the start of the tournament and France was in fourth place. The game will have little impact other than further damaging French morale after a punishing defeat by the All Blacks last week.

France still goes through to the quarter-finals and Tonga still goes home, although they had to win last night's game to qualify for the next tournament.

Tonga was the team which set the cup alive. Every game has been a sellout, from the lows of defeat to Canada and the high of beating Japan.

Tongan captain Finau Maka addressed the crowd at Westpac Stadium in his mother tongue. He told fans: "Thank you to the father and thank you to the prime minister and thank you to all the church leaders. Thank you to all of the people of New Zealand and Tonga, I love you all.

"That's all we can do. That's our best and we hope people are happy for what [the team] has achieved. I love you all."

The French press gave the national team a caning. Le Monde called it "one of the most humiliating defeats in their history". Le Figaro said it would leave a "sense of shame". It was even worse than losing to Italy in the Six Nations, the paper said.

Overjoyed Tongan fans at The Cloud in Auckland included George Vakamilalo. "Otahuhu's going to be like Nuku'alofa tonight," he said.

Mana Saulala, waving his flag as the final whistle blew, said: "Our island is such a small island," he said. "We didn't expect we were going to win."

Mele Pope drove up from Hamilton with her friends to watch the big game. "Even though it was a cold night and we could have watched it at home on TV, we chose to waste our petrol and drive up here to support Tonga."

Pope's friend Taisa Manuopangai, a Waikato University student, was over the moon. "I'm just so proud of the Tongan team right now."

In Nelson, police said crowds at the Australia-Russia match were well-behaved, but officers were investigating an assault on a tourist reported after the game.

Many of the minnows have already begun their journeys back to day jobs. Romania returned home on Friday, Namibia on Tuesday. Georgian team spokesman Lasha Khurtsidze said his team would be hitting the town in Palmerston North after their final game against Argentina today.

Other matches include the All Blacks playing Canada in a rare afternoon game. Kick-off is at 3.30pm in Wellington. Ireland is playing Italy in Dunedin and Wales meets Fiji in Hamilton.