forgot to add put James McManus in that team and scotland have a fairly good team.

Scotland trending worldwide...

And Big Red.

Who was the Tonga hooker? He was awful. Tonga would have won easily if he could pass to his left. Tupou only touched the ball 3 or 4 times near the Scotland line and had one try disallowed and set up another try.

Far too slow at the play of the ball.

One hell of a game. Unlucky for Tonga for Scotland really impressed me, I didn't think they'd be that good.

Best team on the night (barely) won.

Tonga could have won had they had more experienced halves. Foster has talent but he is young and made bad decisions. Too often he tried to break the line himself when should have spread the ball to Tonga's brilliant second rowers and outside backs when there were opportunities. Also Tongan hooker's kicking was poor. Finally, Fisi'iahi made two big blunders.

If the above mentioned can rectify their mistakes, and especially the halves can improve their games, Tonga can still qualify for the QFs. But they have to beat Italy, which won't be easy.

Expect Tonga to beat Cook Islands.

Expect Italy to beat Scotland?



Tonga vs Italy will be awesome. If Tonga win then for and against will matter.

wow thats a massive change of sensationalism to realism well done.

Scotland have just proved they can handle bigger packs so they can give Italy a game and possibly win. Not seen the Cook Islands and tonight has shown anything can happen.

50/50 but I think he tried to flick it back more than a strip. Still Scotland slighter better over full game

I have to say some great scorelines.

This is what we needed more than anything. Competitive games.

I don't care if the groups have been manufactured or not. These scorelines will keep the fans coming back for more.

Just shows you having two class half backs and some good destination and spirit can over come the better side on paper. Great World Cup so far

What a game, loved it. Well done Scotland.
Most incredible game I've seen for years, Tonga should have won easily.
BRILLIANT STUFF.

To carry on the whole theme of the cup - awesome!

Great effort by Scotland. Tonga don't have a clue and just wanted to roll over Scotland and I think they lost an interchange in Massilla so that will have hot their big guys up front and Scotland worked that well.

When you say they don't have a clue what do you mean? It was a pretty close scoreline? I did not see it but the scoreline hardly suggests they were clueless.

Clearly one team was quicker and more powerful than the other.
This was a victory based on a good attitude, a bit of luck and good leadership round the park by the team leaders (Brough, Wallace and Henderson in particular).

Thoroughly enjoyed it. The way Scotland came back at the end and then held on through the inevitable onslaught should make all members of that team really proud.

Then he means Tonga had plan a which was the steam roller over poor small Scotland, but got a huge surprise when Scotland fought back.

not clueless but clearly have the same problem as the other fancied pacific nations, very few top quality halves/hookers and no goalkicker

Not read the thread, but saw the title and thought I would leave my comments.

Tonga were very complacent, obviously thought they could win at a canter, and only really tried to turn it on when it mattered.

Scotland fought hard, but in truth were woeful, against a poor Tonga side.

Scotland were incredibly lucky with some horrendous calls, from what was simply one of the worst officialed matches I have seen. How did that guy get a gig at this level?

enjoyed the game, yet another great advertisement for RL.

Tonga looked abit undercooked, maybe they should of had a warm up match beforehand..

thought they were unlucky too really with quite a few calls and decisions.

but this night was one for the underdogs and for the first real shock of the tournament.. well done scotland!

thats what i thought..

also why not take a kick at goal for the draw with a few mins to go? mind you he wasnt kicking great!

also the russell try, did it actually touch the line and did he have control of the ball?

Yes, it will be in the history books forever more.

Decent game in front of one of the biggest crowds for a game in Cumbria for who knows how long.

Both teams working some rust out of their system. Scotland profiting from some horrendous errors from the Tongans, who are going to have to improve significantly to have any kind of impact on the tournament.

I find it incredible some folk thought Tonga were on the rough end of decisions, I thought the ref expected them to win and reffed it that way. There were a number of very strange calls but to say Tonga were the only ones to suffer is a nonsense. Scotland won because their team ethic was much better.

Scotland had a pack that was mainly SL/NRL players with only Stringer and Philips from the National Leagues, a run on pack of Henderson, Walker, Douglas, Addy, Ferguson and Wilkes (who all played very well) were more disciplined and structured than the bulkier Tongans. I would have expected Stringer's mobility to be a problem against better opposition, but the Tongans just didn't challenge that aspect of his play.

Other than Russell, Scotland had nothing much outside the halves, but neither did Tonga, or at least they didn't show it. The Tongan nr 3 was supposed to be some kind of star, he was just a fat lad playing centre.

Ultimately a team with probably less talent won because they were a team. I thought they deserved it.

Thought Anthony Tupou went well for Tonga on the wing, but they just didn't get him enough ball.

He's certainly big, quick and elusive enough to do some damage if they can use him properly.

which number 3? Booth centres actually wore number 3 during the game (Noble kept getting Hurrell and Taufua mixed up).
However, I wouldn't describe either of them as "just a fat lad playing centre" - they both played quite well if you actually watched the game.

The weak link in the backline was the full-back Fisi'ahi (sp) who make a lot of mistakes and Feki. Daniel Tupou clearly wasn't used enough, especially on attacking kicks near the Scotland line, where he is pretty unstoppable.