Tonga set to swing it against Namibia

London Irish prop Halani Aulika said that after their direct approach backfored somewhat against the Eastern Europeans, they will look to shift the ball wide against Namibia who are looking for their first-ever World Cup win.

“We learned a lot from the first game against Georgia. We went there with our physicality but it didn’t work, we kept running in straight on them. We need to start moving the ball. We need to bring a different gameplan for the next game.”

Aulika is confident in the strength of the Tongan pack. 

"It’s going to be physical; their scrum will be hard to stop. They’ve got a few big players on their team and it’ll be hard scrummaging against them, but we’ll be all right as long as we stick to our gameplan,” he said.

After their disappointing result against Georgia, they need a victory against Namibia so they can approach the match against Argentina a week later on the crest of a wave to have any hope of making the quarterfinals.

Flyhalf Kurt Morath said that they have put the defeat to Georgia behind them and are desperate to gain some momentum ahead of their clash with the Pumas.

"With the tournament being so short, we just had to flush that away and start again really and move on to Namibia. The day after the game, we did a bit of a review, and it’s all about Namibia now,” he said.

Morath is expecting the Namibians to pose a similar challenge to the Georgians. Against New Zealand, the Welwitschias put up a fight despite losing 58-14 to the world champions. 

“Namibia are forward-orientated and they’ve got some big boys in there," he said.

"We will have to really be on our game, up front. The tier two nations now are catching up. The level is improving with professionalism. Everyone’s getting better, so it’s not surprising that the gap’s closing up a bit," he added.

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