Try telling Shaun Wane there is nothing to play for next Saturday in Leeds. His England side have been superior in the opening two Tests of this series with Tonga so a 2-0 advantage with one to play is a fair reflection of the contest so far.
But the notion of the final game at Headingley being a dead rubber is very much out of the question. Wane, one of the most demanding coaches there is, would not accept that mentality in any ordinary scenario, let alone where he and his players have clearly taken personal offence to comments made by the Tonga head coach, Kristian Woolf, and their captain, Addin Fonua-Blake, in the aftermath of last Saturday’s opening match at St Helens. Woolf bemoaned the quality of the pitch and the speed of the ruck while Fonua-Blake claimed England did not win the opening Test, Tonga lost it.
They are far from extraordinary comments but they clearly irked Wane – to the extent that he wasted little time after securing the series in setting the record straight. “I was absolutely desperate to win that game today – it really upset me,” he said of the comments made by Woolf and Fonua-Blake. “They showed disrespect to my players. I’ll be interested to see what their next excuse is.”
England were once again comfortably the better of the sides. In quintessentially English conditions, with non-stop rain making for difficult ball-handling, they managed things better. Tonga turned over possession on too many occasions, including in one or two promising positions of attack while the game was in the balance.
England were far from brilliant in attack but against a side struggling to get to grips with the weather, they did not need to be. Two first-half tries from Matty Ashton were ultimately enough to see off their opponents.
Tonga’s try, scored by Tolutau Koula heading into the final quarter, proved to be mere consolation as they struggled to threaten a comeback that would have sent the series into a decider.
“The pitch was ordinary last week and it doesn’t bother me if he’s upset by that,” Woolf said when asked if he feared his comments had fired England up. “We’re not throwing the towel in. We’ve got one game to go and a young squad so we’re only going to get better.”
Tonga will have to significantly improve if they are to avoid a series whitewash, with the prospect of them dropping to sixth in the world rankings a possibility if beaten 3-0.
England took an early lead when Harry Newman’s fine pass sent Ashton over in the corner. Harry Smith converted and then added a penalty to make it 8-0.
While Tonga had their moments in attack, the final pass was lacking on several occasions. You sensed another try for England would be decisive and when Mikey Lewis’s pinpoint kick was grounded by Ashton to make it 12-0 as half-time approached, the momentum was firmly with the hosts.
Smith’s penalty after the restart opened up a three-score lead and even at such an early stage, it felt like a significant buffer against a team who were struggling to create anything in attack. They finally made a play stick as Will Hopoate’s superb cut-out ball found Koula to narrow the gap to 10, but they were not able to threaten again.
As poor as Tonga’s attack was, England were just as impressive in defence, with the hosts keeping them at arm’s length in the final moments.
Ordinarily, the prospect of a dead rubber leaves things feeling a little flat. However, given the tension between the teams – and in particular the head coaches – there is undoubtedly plenty on the line.
Wane said: “3-0 is the important thing now.” You sense he and his players will be desperate to make that a reality.
