Tonga coach Kristian Woolf insists the squad he will pick for this year’s World Cup will be the strongest squad the nation has ever had in rugby league.
The Tongan national squad have enjoyed a meteoric rise through the rankings in international rugby league in recent years.
They reached the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2017 before going on to claim historic wins over Australia and Great Britain in 2019.
Woolf, who is also coach of Super League champions St Helens, believes Tonga will have their best squad yet at this autumn’s World Cup, which is hosted in England.
Woolf told Love Rugby League: “I think we have got a real opportunity at the end of the year.
“We are going to put together a great squad. We’re going to put a squad stronger than any squad we’ve put together.
“We had great success in 2017 and 2019 and the squad is going to be stronger again and more experienced.
“We’ve got a genuine opportunity through the way we play and results we get. We’ve got a real opportunity to not just put smiles on faces, but make people really proud to be Tongan. That’s what this groups done better than anyone I’ve ever seen before.
“They make people really proud to be Tongan and make people really reunited which they’ve got the opportunity to do again.”