Tonga cruise to big win over the Bravehearts

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Scotland Men v Tonga Men

Tonga put on a clinic in the first half to score at almost a point a minute to blow Scotland off the park 50-4 in Cairns.

Mate Ma'a came into this World Cup with a very strong field and aspirations of reaching the final - and in the first forty minutes of their opening game, they sent a clear message to every other nation as to just how serious they are.

Scotland were no match for the Tongans who ran roughshod over a Scottish outfit who looked to struggle in the humid conditions.

The Scots kicked off and managed to regather the ball, kicking through to the Tongan in-goal but the ball went dead before they could get to it. A scuffle then broke out.

Sadly it was the last time Scotland looked a chance to win and there was still 79 minutes to go.

Michael Jennings scored the opening try two minutes later after a Fifita offload caught the Scotland defence outnumbered. Taukeiaho converted.

Scotland were kept in with a chance thanks to a pair of Konrad Hurrell handling errors, but they couldn't capitalise. Tonga then clicked into gear and ran in four tries over the next ten minutes to essentially end the game for Scotland. Taumalolo, Jennings, Manu and Tupou all scored strong tries from close range to blow the score out to 28-0 after 27 minutes.

Tonga bagged another two tries in the final 3 minutes of the half through Terepo and Jennings to take the lead at halftime 38-0.

The second half saw Tonga play with less enthusiasm however Scotland still struggled to trouble them. It wasn't until the 62nd minute that they finally broke through thanks to a good dummy half try to halfback Danny Addy.

This only served to kick start the Tongan attack, who ran in a further two tries in the final 8 minutes to Tupou and Hingano to run away with an impressive 50-4 victory.