David Fifita has wasted no time in making his mark in a Tonga jersey, scoring a hat trick as they defeated France 48-12 in Halifax.
The Titans backrower was in Kangaroos contention until recently, but switched to play for his heritage at this World Cup, giving an already stacked Tonga forward pack more firepower.
He proved his value early, opening the scoring for Mate Ma’a Tonga, with Manly duo Christian Tuipulotu and Tolu Koula also scoring their first at international level.
France will be slightly disappointed with their showing. They played a close-to full-strength side and were blown away by a powerful pack that was still missing some key components who coach Kristian Woolf chose to rest.
Kiwis looking ominous with 74-0 win
New Zealand have had the perfect start to their tour to England with an ominous 74-0 win over Leeds Rhinos in their warm-up match.
Michael Maguire’s men were near flawless, leaving Leeds – who played in the Super League Grand Final two weeks ago – massively overmatched.
Madge left all his Parramatta and Penrith players out, as well as Joey Manu and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, but the Kiwis were still far too strong for a post-season Leeds side.
(Photo by Will Matthews/PA Images via Getty Images)
Seb Kris ran in a first half hat trick and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad made his claim to start next week’s opener against Lebanon with two tries. As if to underline the depth, Jahrome Hughes came on at half time with New Zealand already 34-0 to the good.
Ronaldo Mulitalo grabbed a double and Jeremy Marshall-King, Brandon Smith, both Bromwich brothers and Briton Nikora all crossed.
Dean Whare, based in Europe with the Catalans Dragons, guested and scored, while the last emotional moment was a haka to send off Thomas Leuluai, who played just short of an hour in the famous black jumper to bring down the curtain on a 20-year career.
Lebanon down Wales, Greece fight back for draw
Mitchell Moses was absent, but Lebanon proved far too good for Wales in their warm-up clash with Adam Doueihi and Jacob Kiraz leading the Cedars to a 38-22 win.
Bulldogs star Kiraz stole the show with a superb solo try, splitting the Welsh defence and burning the fullback to score in the early stages.
Elsewhere, Greece fought back to claim a 34-34 draw with Bradford Bulls at Odsal, with a late Lachlan Ilias penalty coming back off the post to deny them the win.
The Titans had trailed 34-18 going into the final quarter, but late tries from Souths hooker Peter Mamouzelos, Newtown Jets maverick Billy Magoulias and London Skolars forward Adam Vrahnos levelled the scores.
Greece fielded all eight of their players from their domestic competition in the warm-up, which marked their first competitive run since they qualified for the tournament in 2019.
Nat
Roar Guru
More than that Scott? Whitehead, Burgess, Bateman, Farnworth and even George Williams are proven at NRL. Then Watkins and Pearce Paul are above average. IMO Sneyd has real skill and a big boot. Put him in Melbourne and watch the plaudits roll in.
ScottWoodward.me
Roar Guru
Nat If England ever played Qld, the maroons would be 1.20 to win and would have little difficulty. Only Thompson and the Inflictor would make the Qld team.
Maxtruck
Roar Rookie
OK, now I know why Dave Fafita did @@@k all for the Titans this year. He was saving himself for the World Cup
Griffo 09
Roar Rookie
But not in a decider at Lang Park, it's Queensland every time!
Griffo 09
Roar Rookie
I saw them both on tv. :laughing: :silly:
Dionysus
Guest
Yeah the world No1 ranked country warming up for a world cup against an average club side (yeah I know that they got to the GF) with nothing to play for. Leeds have been a very poor side for quite a few years now before coming good just before this year's finals then collapsed in the big one and you are surprised at this result ?
Nat
Roar Guru
Dunno, I'd probably take that. The Panthers advantage would be consistency in playing together. Eng have the stars. If have Eng over Qld...
ScottWoodward.me
Roar Guru
Madge was able to add another 10 games together for the likely 17 which is almost 100 more games together than the Kangaroos. That is a big cohesion edge for the Kiwis when they play the Kangaroos at Elland Road on Nov. 11 to go into the Final. What a game that will be.
ScottWoodward.me
Roar Guru
To be fair Leeds had been partying since the GF
Big Daddy
Roar Rookie
TB3, it's a handful :happy: :thumbup:
Jeff Cook
Roar Rookie
Hi Griffo, I'm pleased to add I witnessed both of Holmes try scoring feats in Darwin and Homebush. Both great games .
Brett Allen
Guest
I agree, I can’t split Aus & NZ. The Kiwis are loaded
Brett Allen
Guest
Until Nov 30 they are Panthers property, they can play them in anything they want.
Brett Allen
Guest
In the old days of Kangaroo tours these score lines were the norm, except when we played Wigan. Believe it or not the Leeds fans at Headingley would’ve loved it. Not the losing person se, but seeing so many great NRL players against their local lads.
Justin
Guest
In a real world situation. Gould & Pascoe would be calling & saying, ‘You’re Not Available To Play’! So we’d be back to, those two players don’t play for Penrith any longer. :thumbup:
Cam
Roar Rookie
They were at full strength, named 15 of the 17 who played in the GF against St Helens 2 weeks ago. Mikolaj Oledzki is the only Leeds player in the GB side.
Cam
Roar Rookie
Tours back in the day always had matches v club or city teams and by and large, they were very competitive. Take Great Britain’s 1984 tour of Australia, GB played 16 games including the 3 tests against the Kangaroos. Amongst the tour matches were Riverina (22-18), Newcastle (28-18), Wide Bay (28-18) and were famously beaten by Toowoomba (16-18). Leeds being beaten 74-0 by any side is very average. Leeds were only missing Mikolaj Oledzki to the GB squad and named 15 of the 17 players who were in the Grand Final a couple of weeks ago.
Griffo 09
Roar Rookie
Well, if it was scheduled for now, I would think they would have no say in the matter.
Justin
Guest
I couldn’t see the Bulldogs or West’s allowing them to go around another game at Penrith, just for the heck of it. Could you? :laughing:
Griffo 09
Roar Rookie
It's not November yet.