'Ikale Tahi lament costly mistakes in Cardiff

The 'Ikale Tahi are trying to take the positive out of a crushing defeat in Wales as they look to end their Northern Tour on a high against Georgia in Tbilisi.

The Kingdom fought back from three tries down to level the scores just after half-time in Cardiff before conceding 50 unanswered points to lose 74-24.

Flanker Dan Faleafa said there were good and bad things about their performance.

"We showed some good attitude after having a yellow card and being down almost 20 points we showed some good resilience to get back and get back up to 24-all after half-time," he said.

"It was awesome work from the boys to get back up there - they're ranked third in the world so we did pretty well to get back and stay in the game - but towards the end we made a few key errors and a quality side like Wales are going to get on top of us and run away with the game towards the end.

"We didn't have any answer for it in the last 20...just a bit of lack of concentration and a bit of fatigue. The boys we just need to try and iron out those small errors because it cost us in the end and hopefully this week we can make up for it and play the full 80 and get a win this weekend."

The 29 year old Faleafa is one of four Tongan players at English Championship side Coventry, alongside fellow backrowers Jack Ram and Latu Makaafi and veteran outside back David Halaifonua.

The 18 test veteran said a lot had changed in the 'Ikale Tahi set-up since he made his international debut in 2013.

"A lot of fresh young faces have come in and brought in a lot of excitement and I guess there's a lot of good competition going on at the moment," he said.

"Everyone (is) fighting for spots at the World Cup, which only pushes everyone to work harder and do those little extras that no one wants to do.

"That's been the biggest change and we've had some quality staff come in like Toutai (Kefu), who's one of the legends in the game, and we've got (former All Black midfielder) Pita Alatini with us and we've had a couple of guys come in and out helping us like Kisi (Pulu) and Sam Tuitupou.

"We've got some good people in and around us and it seems like we're heading in the right direction so things are looking good."

Tonga were victorious on their last visit to Georgia four years ago but have lost their last three tests against the Lelos, including earlier this year in Suva.

     

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