Try time: Sukanaivalu Hufanga
Tonga produced the biggest upset of the 2011 World Cup on Saturday by outplaying France to win 19-14 in Wellington.
A losing bonus point - captured in the last minute - means France will progress to the quarter-finals nevertheless, but based on this performance they will go no further.
Directionless on attack, disorganised on defence, outmuscled at the breakdown, les Bleus never looked like winning against a charged-up Tongan side.
Take nothing away from the Islanders, who thoroughly deserved their victory which will go down as one of the biggest upsets in Rugby World Cup history.
Tonga led 13-7 at half-time as the French failed to assert themselves up front.
As the famous saying goes, you need to earn the right to go wide and France seemed to have forgotten that it usually helps to go forward before you go wide.
Not that they had much decent ball to work with anyway as Tonga dominated in terms of territory. When France did get hold of the ball, some pitiful decision making left their fans pulling their hair out.
Dimitri Yachvili gave les Bleus a 6-3 lead after 25 minutes in a brutal opening period but Tonga would be first to cross the whitewash.
Fly-half Kurt Morath's pin-point accurate cross-field kick was picked up by wing Sukanaivalu Hufanga, who shrugged off a poor tackle from Julien Bonnaire to crash over and give the underdogs an unexpected lead.
Morath added a penalty to his conversion and the French were stunned to trail by seven points.
Hufanga threw the French a lifeline just before the half-time break by earning himself a yellow card for a lifting tackle on Vincent Clerc, but you would never have guessed Tonga were down a man as they had the better of the opening exchanges in the second period.
France were unable to take advantage of the sin binning and could hardly even get into Tongan territory in Hufanga's absence.
Yachvili was able to reduce the gap when Alisona Taumalolo was penalised for a shoulder charge but the third quarter belonged almost entirely to Tonga.
Marc Lièvremont had all but emptied his bench by the hour mark, but it didn't help as Morath extended the Tongan's lead from the kicking tee.
When Fabrice Estebanez saw yellow for tip tackle with 15 minutes to play, the writing was on the wall and Morath gave Tonga a ten-point advantage.
A try in the corner for Clerc will be no consolation for the French, who have some serious soul searching to do.
Man of the match: Immense at the breakdown, flank Sione Kalamafoni smashed and bashed his team into the history books.
Moment of the match: From the moment that Tonga moved ahead after Sukanaivalu Hufanga's try, the upset looked on the cards. France never recovered.
Villain of the match: No nasty stuff on the pitch...we can't guarantee the same at the press conference afterwards.
The scorers:
For France:
Try: Clerc
Pens: Yachvili 3
For Tonga:
Tries: Hufanga
Con: Morath
Pens: Morath 4
Yellow cards: Hufanga (Tonga - 39th min - lifting tackle); Estebanez (France - 65th min - lifting tackle)
France: 15 Maxime Médard, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Aurélien Rougerie, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Alexis Palisson, 10 Morgan Parra, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Raphael Lakafia, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (c), 5 Lionel Nallet, 4 Pascal Pape, 3 Luc Ducalcon, 2 William Servat, 1 Jean-Baptiste Poux.
Replacements: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Fabien Barcella, 18 Julien Pierre, 19 Imanol Harinordoquy, 20 Francois Trinh-Duc, 21 Fabrice Estebanez, 22 Cédric Heymans.
Tonga: 15 Vungakoto Lilo, 14 Viliame Iongi, 13 Siale Piutau, 12 Andrew Ma'ilei, 11 Sukanaivalu Hufanga, 10 Kurt Morath, 9 Taniela Moa, 8 Viliami Ma'afu, 7 Finau Maka (captain), 6 Sione Kalamafoni, 5 Paino Hehea, 4 Tukulua Lokotui, 3 Kisi Pulu, 2 Aleki Lutui, 1 Soane Tonga'uiha.
Replacements: 16 Ephraim Taukafa, 17 Alisona Taumalolo, 18 Halani Aulika, 19 Joseph Tuineau, 20 Samiu Vahafolau, 21 Samisoni Fisilau, 22 Alipate Fatafehi
Venue: Regional Stadium, Wellington
Referee: Steve Walsh
Comments
rodofle says...
A funny thing is, I was thinking about it, that before NZ vs France game, G Henry told several times about the French : "We never can write them off, the strength of the french is that they play with immense passion, and blablabla"... Man, that's so ironic, because you'll never find a team that plays with less passion these days than France ! Just a bunch of soulless idiots.
Posted 20:24 01st October 2011
pierredelot1 says...
Sounding a bit chippy, Kiwi Rooster. So french Rugby is worse than anywhere else. Yet Toulouse continue to have success both in domestic and European competition. They play with a philosophy that says rugby should be played for enjoyment and with heads up. sadly rather like England, politics come into it. When you have so many teams and so many spectators (Toulouse regularly 19,000 and often when at the Football Stadium 30,000) it does illustrate how much money may be about. Trouble is the guys who go for office in the game and often the guys who own the clubs are in it for the wrong reasons. Most people agree that Lievrement should never have been chosen as coach, but he was and has proved to be barking. England too chose a coach with no training and no managerial experience, same problem. rumours were rife long before Johnsons appointment that the job was his, it was only a question of when. Other problems have also come to light in the administration of English rugby, wouldn't we all like to hear what happened to the last chief exec. But this is not new, it happened in South Africa and has probably happened in NZ and Aussie land. Money makes professional sport but it also takes away the values. One other problem with French Rugby is the lack of top class referees in the top 14. some of them look as if they've just come out of retirement. Dirty play is ignored, just watch the finals of the French Championship for 1009 and 2010 and the top French International Referees are seldom given charge of the major domestic matches. But France will be back, it could be next week, but I doubt it, although they may win as England to date have been pretty soporific, disjointed and often outplayed. Regular watchers of French Rugby are well aware of the talent available. Oh and Jauzion and Poitrenaud had terrible games today Mons Lievrement, Toulouse hammered Clermont, whoops.
Posted 18:09 01st October 2011
thewalker says...
Well done Tonga great game for them on the other hand France poor at best some one needs a good kick up the butt,Come next week when the french play england what team will turn up i hope its a good one and see some runnung rugby from the french
Posted 17:04 01st October 2011
kpe12 says...
Damn Tonga for letting the French get a bonus point. The ABs could have then thrown the game and still taken first in the pool and knocked the French out.
Posted 15:38 01st October 2011
Rosbif says...
@ChrisInCrete, no deep conspiracy or funny business methinks, just maths. Tonga needed to score 4 tries and deny Fra the losing bonus pt to qualify ahead of them. With 79 mins on the clock, and Tonga having scored only 1 try (that's a whole different debate, ie. why all the Tongan kicks at goal earlier in the game?) Fra didn't need the 3pts from the penalty anyway. Just the mindless commentators who were saying that...
Mind you, still doesn't explain the woeful first 79 mins by Fra... I think we French supporters are experiencing trauma. We've been in denial for a few games. Now we are angry. Next comes bargaining (e.g. please God, just let our team play well once, we promise never to question ML again). Then comes depression (which is nxt weekend vs Eng). Then finally acceptance (i.e. we have a poorly managed, overpaid, spoilt group of players and staff, who rarely play with spirit for more than 10-15 mins, and deserve to rank somewhere beneath Italy and Scotland in the WC performances). We are frankly nowhere near as good as Samoa, Tonga, Fiji etc, and were in hindsight lucky to beat Canada who had to play us 4 days after playing Tonga, who themselves only lost to Canada cos they had 4 days to recuperate after facing the ABs. What a joke!
If by a miracle we beat Eng, and make it to the semis or beyond, LET'S NOT FORGET THIS MOMENT. We need to learn from it, to effect a root-and-branch re-organisation of the entire structure of our game and mind-set in France. Or we are lost, like soccer has been for many years.
Posted 14:56 01st October 2011
SACanuck says...
Just proves bad coaches equals poor results. France need Nick Mallet
Posted 14:26 01st October 2011
7nezking says...
@bigb69 My sister was at the game and told me how the French supporters hung around with the Tongans after the games. She also sat with French supporters during the game and although they cheered for France, they always cheered for FInau Maka when he was involved in something.
Great game by Tonga, they surely are not better than the French in game-plan, technique, skills...but they played their hearts out against a team with better skills but heart-less. The English should not think they're already into the semis coz we all know how unpredictable the french can be....but I still doubt the French will go further.
Malo e va'inga 'Ikale Tahi....GO TONGA GO!!!
Posted 14:10 01st October 2011
ChrisInCrete says...
Brilliant by Tonga
For France, the Dark Side - something seriously going wrong there. This is ghosting what happened to their world cup football team, dissension between the coach and players and an absolute mess on the pitch. With the last penalty in front of the posts, I actually thought that the French players were trying to throw the match - why on earth did they not go for the posts, 3 points, final whistle, qualification - and they go for a scrum. If they had not scored out wide ................................... unbelievable choice. The more I think about it, the more I think that there was some funny business going on.
Next round England France - coin toss who's going to win.
@rugbyheim - Nice one ;-)
Posted 12:47 01st October 2011
sandal says...
"" Tonga produced the biggest upset of the 2011 World Cup on Saturday ""
Well, who would have thought Planet Rugby would be guilty of understatement? I cannot think of a bigger upset in any sport ever. Never mind this year's rugby world cup.
And thoroughly well deserved! Well done, Tonga. Thank you for an occasion that all sports lovers can cherish (though the French no doubt would rather it had happened to someone else).
Posted 12:30 01st October 2011
jaycee_111 says...
What you saw today was the way you get rid of a coach you don't like faster than he was plannig on going.
Posted 11:56 01st October 2011
vaizpatu2011 says...
ruggaluva says...I am full of those staff..you know those
Posted 11:16 01st October 2011
J_HDK says...
Tonga didn't do anything special here today. They played their game and did it well. This shows just how bad France were today. I would say that this is the end for the french team.. but after watching Eng V Sco... still not sure.
Posted 11:01 01st October 2011
NHsaints says...
Well this could either cause a whiplash for england or it could be a stroll in of a qf...I hope it's the second but never forget 2007 and england...and it's France...who knows what could happen...
Posted 10:31 01st October 2011
hougiebear says...
I said this was going to happen, France are a joke under this coach
Posted 10:22 01st October 2011
coronach says...
from todays' matches, another competition - for the most clueless team.
Nominees would be the second 40min from Australia, all 80min from France, and (at the 50min mark right now) England's first 50.
Little wonder most Kiwis will be watching the league tomorrow.
Go Warriors.
Posted 09:44 01st October 2011
hayj05 says...
I can bet you right now that French will be even tougher to beat in the qf now than they would of been if they had beaten Tonga convincingly. That's how the French are.
@ruggaluva - I don't think anyone who watched that game doesn't think the French were poor tactically but you must give full credit to Tonga because they rattled them with their physicality.
SA played alright though, they just meet an immense Samoan side with nothing to lose in the 2nd half.
Posted 09:42 01st October 2011
hayj05 says...
I can bet you right now that French will be even tougher to beat in the qf now than they would of been if they had beaten Tonga convincingly. That's how the French are.
@ruggaluva - I don't think anyone who watched that game doesn't think the French were poor tactically but you must give full credit to Tonga because they rattled them with their physicality.
SA played alright though, they just meet an immense Samoan side with nothing to lose in the 2nd half.
Posted 09:39 01st October 2011
papachinzo says...
Oh dear . . . Looks like all the Northern Hemisphere teams are already out of this World Cup!
Posted 09:19 01st October 2011
ruggaluva says...
also.... note to AB's - looks like you might only get one tough game this WC, cause you cannot tell me after this that any of you actually think France were worth crowing about after this ?? Our under 15 side could put the blowtorch on this hopeless bunch.
Posted 09:18 01st October 2011
RealRugby says...
Well done Tonga - one can only imagine with a bit more experience you could have taken the 4 tries you deserved.
As for the French... Some people I know had them down as thru 'dark horse'. Look like a better candidate for the glue factory!
Posted 09:15 01st October 2011