Tonga national rugby league team

It is semi-final week and there's plenty to dive into.

Fans' picks for this week, we had Paul Ciccia, who picked Tonga by 26 points to 16.

That was the correct team.

Kieran Jones, who picked England by 70 points to 16, which again was the correct team.

The prediction table looks like this.

Fans are top with six points, just correctly predicted every single team all the way through.

steady away Paul you're on four I guess the Rose won four and then I took Carl's position down the bottom of three so I'm going to have to be bold this week to try and get back into the game let's get straight into this week's first game of the week which is the first semi-final I don't know actually if it's the first semi-final player but it's the first one we're talking about which is Tonga versus New Zealand it's the flags behind us it's a big game and honestly probably the game I'm most excited for this entire World Cup

yeah i think i think it's going to be a cracking game i think tonga in good form new zealand are obviously in great form i think it'll take some performance for tonga to win this one um new zealand with uh with the way they played last weekend you would make them heavy favorites i thought they were fantastic last weekend and going into this game um they've had three games one of which they probably should have won and two of which they've won comfortably as as predicted so they're in great form and Tonga have won three from three so Christian Wolfe will certainly have his team up for it can there be an upset I guess you'd be a brave man to predict a Tonga win but I think it'll be a cracking game and and one in which everybody should watch and the players will be looking forward and be privileged to play in.

You go to Michael Jackson and go, hey, you and Islanders at the moment, I know you're a Kiwis fan.

Tonga, we're coming for you.

We're coming, we're coming.

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I got to say, I'm Kiwis all

day.

Tonga's not

beating us.

they've got an abundance of middles.

We saw him the other night for Tonga.

He was unbelievable when he came on.

He's a good player, yeah.

Exciting.

Honestly, it's been the best World Cup on record.

We go to Newcastle Saturday, Kiwis Tonga.

Then we're down at Allianz.

He's our Hollywood correspondent.

This Saturday, the Kiwis will take on Tonga in the semi-final of the Rugby League World Cup.

How good.

Rugby

It's

been so cool, been some amazing games, and it's only going to get better from here.

Like this game on Saturday between the Kiwis and Tonga is going to be an absolute belter.

It's going to be huge.

We knew the situation.

We knew we had to beat Tonga as soon as we didn't.

The scenario was pretty difficult, wasn't it? It was going to be, you need to beat France and PNG by pretty much...

130-0 in back-to-back games.

It is sort of silly.

Ultimately, it was a test match win, this, for England.

Ultimately, they've won two of their three tests and they've lost to Tonga, who were favourites in that game.

I've seen a lot of adjectives thrown at this competition and this effort from England.

Probably the, you know, I guess major disappointment, I guess, for the tournament was that England aren't competing in the finals.

And that loss that they had to Tonga here at that, you know, fantastic atmosphere we witnessed at HBF Park when Tonga got up and quite comfortably beat the England team Going back a few weeks ago, once they had that loss, it was an uphill battle for them to, given the nature of the structure of the draw and the pathway to the semis, they were always up against it.

So probably not too surprising that England aren't there, but fairly predictable when you're left with the two semis, New Zealand v Tonga and Australia v Samoa in the men's.

And as far as the women's concerned, look, let's be real, this Australian-Gillaroo side are just supreme.

And I think when you've got such a high-quality team week-to-week competition of the of the nrlw um and such you know a wonderful high performance coaching and training environments for the women at that level um it's not surprising that uh you know when they combine as a jillaroo's national side for australia uh there's not going to be any other side in the tournament that can match it with them in my opinion uh so um So I think it really has exposed in the women's game just perhaps a lot of work to be done in some of those other countries.

They do tend to be a little bit clunky at times, but hopefully coming into the semis...

Kevi will have the right combinations.

If you look at Samoa, they were unlucky not to beat Tonga last week.

Fairly predictable.

Probably the major disappointment for the tournament was that England aren't competing in the finals and that loss that they had to Tonga here at that fantastic atmosphere we witnessed at HBF Park when Tonga got up and quite comfortably beat the England team Going back a few weeks ago, once they had that loss, it was an uphill battle for them to, given the nature of the structure of the draw and the pathway to the semis, they were always up against it.

So probably not too surprising that England aren't there, but fairly predictable when you're left with the two semis, New Zealand v Tonga and Australia v Samoa in the men's.

And as far as the women's concerned, look, let's be real, this Australian-Gillaroo side are just supreme.

And I think when you've got such a high-quality team, week-to-week competition of the of the nrlw um and such you know a wonderful high performance coaching and training environments for the women at that level um it's not surprising that uh you know when they combine as a jillaroos national side for australia uh there's not going to be any other side in the tournament that can match it with them in my opinion uh so um So I think it really has exposed in the women's game just perhaps a lot of work to be done in some of those other countries.

They do tend to be a little bit clunky at times, but hopefully coming into the semis...

Kevi will have the right combinations.

If you look at Samoa, they were unlucky not to beat Tonga last week.

Oh, it's still very hateful.

But it's not like footy where you can just take it out on each other and just like watching a footy game the other day with Samoa and Tonga.

You can just talk smack and go at it.

Basketball, you can try to talk smack and hope they make a mistake the next time and every mistake try to compound it by getting in their head and things like that.

We love our Rugby League World Cup on Channel 7.

We are enjoying it.

And this weekend, New Zealand take on Tonga.

This is going to be a massive game.

Mate, flip a coin this weekend, especially...

With the Tonga-New Zealand game, I think, mate, that's going to be an incredible match.

I can't wait for that one.

I do think the Kiwis have the upper hand, bossy.