Tonga A

The competition involves Fiji Warriors, Samoa A, Tonga A and Junior Japan.

The key investment tournament will feature closed law trials around the scrum and ruck areas.

It follows the implementation of World Rugby's global law trials which began on 1 January, 2017 in the southern hemisphere and will do so in the north on 1st August.

Fiji Village reports these trials focused on front‑row replacements, advantage, touch, penalty tries and time‑keeping.

Tonga A team arrived in the country on Monday dressed in their traditional attire and wearing black to mark their mourning period.

Fiji Times reports former Suva captain Isileli Fatani, who is now coaching the side, said they wanted to win the title this year.

"We are ready to face Fiji Warriors in our first game of the competition. The boys are confident of a good outing," Fatani said.

"The team has been preparing for the past two months for the competition. We have only six players who played for Tonga last year while the others are new to the team.

As a former Suva rugby captain back in 1997 and 1998, Tongan coach Isileli Fatani knows too well how Fijians play on the field.

“Fiji is a really good team and they’ve got the best quality of players. They’re very active in attacking and defending but we’re training all this time to defend them come Friday. We’ve got some overseas-based-players and we hope they will counter the strong Fijian side,” Fatani said.

Fatani adds they are looking forward to improve over last year where they suffered a humiliating defeat against Fiji 56-18.

The competition will be held at the ANZ Stadium in Suva.

Fiji Times reports the Tongans arrived in Fiji yesterday with a mission on head to win the competition.

Coach Isileli Fatani said playing Fiji and Samoa were also a tough and physical battle between the Pacific island teams.

The match kicks off at 5.30pm (local time).

Photo file. ANZ Stadium Suva 

The first game for Tonga A is against Fiji Warriors in Suva on Friday.
On Tuesday, March 14 the team takes on Samoa A followed by the match against Junior Japan on Saturday, March 18 at the ANZ Stadium, Suva, Fiji. 

Digicel has congratulated Timote on his inclusion in the squad.

The 28-member squad is as follows:

Tonga A captain Sione Lolohea said they had learnt from their previous matches in the tournament after having lost to Japan in round one of the competition.

"Pretty much for today's game I am happy with the boys because of their confidence. For most of them this is the first time to be on a tour and a big tournament like this. We learnt from all the games and the confidence boosted a win today," he said.

Discipline was the highlight of the match with the referee having to flash two yellow and two red cards in the match.

Tonga's Bruce Folau and Fiji's Alivereti Mocelutu were sin-binned while Tonga captain Sione Lolohea and Fiji's Lepani Raiyala were given the marching orders for off the ball incidents.

The Warriors face winless Tonga A in the final round-robin match at the ANZ Stadium in Laucala Bay, Suva.

After impressive wins over Samoa A (34-6) and Junior Japan (44-14), Fiji has been the first team to qualify for Monday's final.

The relaxed Warriors toured the HMNZS Canterbury at the Suva harbour yesterday.

Warriors manager Dan Domoni said the side was focused on delivering another win.

"We want to build the momentum for the final," he said.

"We have qualified but it doesn't mean, we don't want to win tomorrow (today)."

The Friendly Islanders suffered their second loss in the four-team tournament at the ANZ Stadium in Laucala Bay, Suva on Saturday after being thrashed 50-0 by Samoa A.

Fiji Times reports Lolohea's boys simply had no answer to the Samoan onslaught in an entertaining, open-style game.

"Yes. It's a disappointing performance but I'm all right with that," Tonga A head coach Isi Fatani said.

"We have a lot of new players from U21.

"This is the first time for most to play in a tournament like this. This is new to them.

Team captain Syokei Kin said while the win was welcome they were not satisfied yet.

"We didn't spend much time on preparation however we try to play better individually that's why we won today (yesterday). We are not satisfied yet, however we got the little win we wanted," he said.