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How Vern Cotter plans to shut down Tonga's new superstar backline

(Photos / Getty Images)

Vern Cotter has tasked his players with the daunting job of shutting down former Wallaby Israel Folau and ex-All Blacks Malakai Fekitoa and Charles Piutau who will all be making their debuts for Tonga against hosts Fiji in the opening Pacific Nations Cup match in Suva on Saturday.

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The high profile trio have taken advantage of a change in World Rugby’s eligibility rules and their presence in the Tonga side is already attracting plenty of attention.

While Fekitoa, who won the last of his 24 All Blacks caps in 2017, and Piutau, who won his 17th and final All Blacks cap in 2015, have been impressing in the English Premiership for Wasps and Bristol respectively in recent seasons, Folau has been forced to play rugby league with the Catalan Dragons in France after his high profile sacking from the Australian Rugby Union for making anti-gay social media posts in 2019. He eventually settled his legal action against the Union out of court and is now four years since Folau won the last of his 73 caps for Australia against England.

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Despite all three players having been out of the test arena, Fiji head coach Cotter is wary of their potential impact in Tongan colours. He told Fiji Times: “We know those players have certain traits and we will look to shut them down in that area.

“Tonga is always physical so we need to be ready to face the one-on-one confrontations from the set-pieces. Our go forward is important and we need to dominate in that area.

“Folau is very good in the air depending on how we kick. Fekitoa has good feet in the midfield and we will have to keep an eye on him. We know how dangerous they are so we will focus more on our game in order to shut them out.”

Cotter can take heart from the arrival in Fiji of his overseas players for the tournament which is a key part of his build up to the Rugby World Cup in France next year. “As players come in, it will be a good time to test them and obviously prepare them for the November series and the Rugby World Cup,” added Cotter.

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“For the players that came in last week, we would like to give them an opportunity to see how they play. You will probably see a shift in our games and we have faith these players have what it takes to do the job.”

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Flankly 1 hour ago
Late Makazole Mapimpi try earns the Sharks win away to Edinburgh

Jake White described this as the strongest Sharks lineup ever. There is no doubt that it is at least an impressive roster. They did win, which is obviously an achievement against a good Edinburgh side. However …


For much of the first half Edinburgh seemed easily able to create 2 on 1 opportunities on both wings, with the defensive wingers biting in on the inside runner and cover defence being AWOL. Conversely the Sharks showed little ability to get behind the Edinburgh defensive line, with the sole exception of a nicely-exploited Am mismatch against a second row (which led to the Fassi try).


In general the Sharks, with their full complement of Bok firepower, do not look that dangerous in attack, and while tackling was good on the whole and goal line defence was impressive at times, they were exhibiting surprising breakdowns in open play defensive structures.


Also, the Sharks continue to be inaccurate, with material impact on the scoreboard. Missing two very kickable penalties is not the way to be the best. It looked to me like the Sharks contestable kicks were not well enough executed, and were too hard to recover.


Not sure what the running attack was trying to do, but my guess is that they were trying to pull off a Harlequins-style bash-and-offload game off of 12 (Esterhuizen). That’s not a terrible idea with the personnel available, but it would require creativity and a precision on second phase that was not in evidence.


Lastly, you have to have better discipline. It’s great that the team can cope with a 13 vs 14 period (of almost 10 minutes), but smart teams a avoid cards.


Having said that it was great to see the win. I thought that Edinburgh were cynical and niggly. Always hanging around on the wrong side of the breakdown, lots of intentional obstruction, illegal dummying at the base of the ruck, etc. They played a dirty game and the ref tolerated it. Always good to see that not succeed.


Overall the “best Sharks lineup ever” scraped the win, but under-performed their Bok-laden potential. Again.

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