15 Apr 2014

Sport: Tonga U20s need helping hand to make final in Hong Kong

11:04 am on 15 April 2014

Tonga coach Fe'ao Vunipola is trying to keep the message simple ahead of Tuesday night's must-win game against the United States at the Junior World Rugby Trophy.

The Kingdom have mixed defeat to Georgia with a win over Hong Kong so far in pool play and need results to go their way to earn a place in the grand final.

The USA have nine points from two games, four clear of both Tonga and Georgia.

The Pacific Islanders need to win and prevent the US from gaining a bonus point, but will miss out to Georgia if the Europeans can beat Hong Kong with a four try bonus point.

Fe'ao Vunipola admits their fate is out of their hands.

"We don't want to think too much ahead of ourselves about bonus points but yeah it's at the back of their mind. For us it's win first and bonus for us is the bonus point. We believe that we are capable of pulling out a performance that we can all be proud of and looking at the USA team, they're the team to beat after coming down from tier one. We will do our best and I think if we do our best it will be enough for us to get a result".

The top team in each pool will square off in the final, with the winner to be promoted to the elite Junior World Championship.