For all World Rugby’s efforts to give emerging nations greater exposure to the leading teams in between World Cups, Tonga’s match with Wales in Cardiff on Saturday is only their third against a tier-one country in three years.
They will match that tally in the opening three rounds of next year’s World Cup in Japan when they face England, Argentina and France in a two-week period far more demanding than they are used to.
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Although they are up against a Wales side that shows 14 changes from the team that defeated Australia last weekend, their opponents have been in camp for the best part of a month. Tonga, whose side is made up of players based in France, England, New Zealand and Wales, warmed up with a victory over the French Barbarians in Bordeaux last weekend.
“There are a few areas we have to work on but we are heading in the right direction,” the Tonga coach, Toutai Kefu, a No 8 in his playing days who won 60 caps for Australia, said. “Wales may not have picked their strongest team but they are still Wales and will have a strong set piece and good kicking game. They won’t give us much and we will need to take care of the ball.”
Tonga were the runners-up in this year’s Pacific Nations Cup, although they went on to defeat the champions, Fiji. They lost to Wales in Auckland last year having beaten Italy in Padova in the 2016 autumn series. They are captained by the Bristol centre Siale Piutau with the Newcastle scrum-half Tane Takulua their goalkicker and conductor.
Wales have not lost at home for nearly a year and, after overcoming their nemesis Australia, are on course to go through a four-match autumn campaign unbeaten with South Africa to come next week. They have, though, often struggled against tier-two opponents having made sweeping changes.
They laboured to a 13-6 victory over Georgia last year, beat Japan with a late drop goal in 2016 and in the years before that failed to score points in the second half against Fiji and Tonga. Leicester’s full-back Jonah Holmes makes his Test debut on an afternoon when the Saracens wing Liam Williams wins his 50th cap.
“We are not getting ahead of ourselves,” the Wales head coach, Warren Gatland said, “but we feel we are in a good place. We have not been talking about South Africa this week: the focus has been Tonga. We have made a lot of changes but everyone knows that he has the chance to put himself in contention to face South Africa.”
Elsewhere, Scotland’s captain Greig Laidlaw says his side are braced for a tough test against South Africa at Murrayfield.
The Dark Blues have won just five of their previous 26 meetings with the Springboks, the last of which was eight years ago when Gregor Townsend was assistant coach for a 21-17 triumph.
South Africa, who have outscored Scotland by 15 tries to one in the last three meetings, lost to England and beat France in two close-fought matches on tour so far.
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Laidlaw, though, says their recent victory over New Zealand is a true indication of the size of Scotland’s task. “It’s going to be a hard Test match, that’s for sure,” Laidlaw said.
“They’re a very good side and they’re coming off the back of victory against New Zealand in the Rugby Championship.
“They’re playing with a lot of confidence, coming back to win well last week against France. It’s going to be tough but we’re looking forward to it.”
Scotland’s head coach Townsend has made six changes to the team that started last week’s game against Fiji. Centre Huw Jones, whose professional career began in South Africa, is the only new name in the backline but Townsend has brought Gordon Reid, Stuart McInally, Jonny Gray, Ben Toolis and Hamish Watson into a beefed-up pack for what he has described as “the biggest physical challenge in world rugby”.