Tonga beat Samoa and walked straight into the Rugby League World Cup semi-finals, with Addin Fonua-Blake powering through Spencer Leniu for the winning try eight minutes from time. The result sent Tonga on to New Zealand in the last four and left England on the outside looking in.
It was the kind of finish that changed the bracket in a single play. Tonga needed the victory to keep its run alive, and Fonua-Blake delivered it in front of 29,411 fans at Western Sydney Stadium, a record for the ground, as the match completed the group stage and settled who would move on.
For England, the arithmetic was simple and unforgiving: it needed a much bigger Tonga win to stay in the hunt, but Tonga's narrow edge still left the side out of the semi-finals for the first time. Samoa's defeat also fixed its next step against Australia, while Australia and New Zealand had already won their final group games on Sunday and closed the door on the rest of the field.
That leaves Tonga with a different kind of test now. Kristian Woolf said his side still had room to improve and called New Zealand probably the most dominant team in the tournament so far. He was not wrong to point to the scale of the task. New Zealand's form has looked overwhelming, but Tonga has already shown enough power, nerve and late-game control to make the matchup in Newcastle on Saturday one worth watching to the end.
The wider picture of the tournament was settled at the same time. Australia beat the Cook Islands 66-6 in Townsville on Saturday, and Lebanon beat France 24-20 in golden-point extra time on Sunday, with Arthur Mourgue levelling the scores from 40 metres before Abbas Miski finished the game after a kick-and-chase. By the end of the third weekend, Tonga had secured its place, England was out, and the semi-final bracket was complete.
