9 Jun 2011

Tonga thrash USA in Churchill Cup opener

10:40 am on 9 June 2011

Tonga have opened their Churchill Cup rugby campaign with a commanding 44-13 victory over the USA in London.

The Ikale Tahi scored five tries to one, with debutant winger Viliami Iongi bagging four on his own.

Coach Isitolo Maka says he was pleased with the team's dominance up front at scrum-time but said there's a lot of work to be done before Monday's final pool match against England A.

"Our execution, we should have scored more points but we didn't take our chances just with the final pass, holding on to the ball. First half it was 13-10 to us. I think the problem was it was the first time for us to play together as a team in this group and I think that the more the game went on the more we improves and hopefully we can take that to England."