The Tongan “close call” against the Springboks was another exciting game up to the half, with South Africa leading 7-3 in a parsimonious affair. Then, a breakthrough from Tonga that saw them leading 10-7. The South Africans brought in some first stringers to bring the game back toward a more normalized outcome and, after charging up a 25-10 lead, the Tongans battled back and the nail biter was finally settled at 30-25 in favour of the Springboks with a flurry of scoring and sin bins in the last twenty minutes (see BBC report or RWC official report on the RSA v Tonga match).Meanwhile, England, guided by Wilkinson’s 24 point performance, saw off the Samoans 44-22 (BBC report), gaining a bonus point in the nick of time to offset the Tongan bonus point. The net of these two outcomes will be a fabulous showdown between Tonga and England on the 28th in Paris. I suspect this one to be a thriller. The other match of interest will be between Scotland and Italy.
Others blogging on the matches:
The Rugby World Cup : Tonga v RSA, arguably the best game thus far…
Scrumbag writeup
The Roar (from down under): one of the great rugby games…
Rugby World Cup blog (short in content)
