6 Sep 2011

Sport: Tonga rugby captain wants best side to play All Blacks

10:32 am on 6 September 2011

The Tonga rugby captain says he wants to see their best play the All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup opener on Friday in Auckland.

Finau Maka and his squad were given a boisterous welcome at Auckland International Airport with thousands of the Tongan community turning out yesterday afternoon to dwarf earlier team arrival celebrations

Tonga could strategically hold back its top line up to better its chances of making it past pool play but Maka says that isn't the Tongan way.

"We've been together now for three weeks so every day,day by day, I feel we're getting stronger and stronger.So as a team we take it game by game and every game we try to put out our best team.Because we don't get many chances to play teams like the All Blacks and France so we've got to make the most of it and try to put on our best team"

Finau Maka.