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Pool C: Australia 67-5 Tonga
(IRB.COM) Wednesday 9 June 2010
Lachlan McCaffrey scored minutes into his first JWC game - Photo: Jano Coclerniani/IRB
Nicolas White scored a hat-trick of tries as Australia warmed up for their IRB Junior World Championship 2010 Pool C decider with South Africa by overwhelming Tonga 67-5 at the Club Atlético Estudiantes in Paraná on Wednesday.
The scrum half, the second Australian player to score a hat-trick after wing Aidan Toua's haul in their 58-13 defeat of Scotland four days ago, claimed a personal of 23 points after also kicking four conversions.
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Lachlan McCaffrey was only four minutes into his JWC debut - having joined the squad as an injury replacement a few days before the tournament - when he got Australia up and running with the opening try.
White doubled Australia's advantage four minutes later by converting his own try, but Tonga then came back into the game, enjoying some good possession. However, the islanders were unable to turn this in points as a result of errors.
Australia regained control of the match late in the first half, changing their strategy slightly to bring their forwards more into the game, and reaped the rewards when first prop Scott Sio and centre Cameron Mitchell touched down to make it 26-0 at half time.
With the try bonus point already wrapped up, Australia picked up where they had left off with centre Robbie Coleman and second row Phoenix Battye scoring tries in the opening six minutes of the second half.
Tonga did manage to open their account in the 48th minute after some good individual play by prop Mone Latu, but Austalia's superior ball handling, precision and speed allowed them to control the match with Samuel Robertson, White and regular captain Jake Schatz crossing for tries to make it 43-0 with 10 minutes remaining.
Fly half Jonathon Dance, captaining the side with Schatz having started the match on the bench, scored Australia's 10th try of the afternoon and there was just enough time for White to complete his hat-trick before the final whistle.
Australia will now face South Africa, the side who beat them 32-5 in the third place play-off in last year's Championship in Japan, in Santa Fe on Sunday for the right to top Pool C and be guaranteed a place in the semi finals.
Tonga and Scotland, meanwhile, will both be looking for a first win when they meet in Paraná the same day.
POST MATCH REACTION
Australia coach David Nucifora: "We felt that we played well in parts. We didn't play as well as we should have for the full 80 minutes but parts of the game I thought were very good and we were happy with sections of it. But we are going to need to improve on other parts of our game if we are going to beat South Africa on Sunday.
"We will turn our attention to them now. They'll be a different proposition than the first two teams we have played, they'll be far more competitive in the set piece part of the game, they will put more pressure on us in that respect. We won't get as many opportunities against a team like South Africa so we have to make sure that when an opportunity arises we're good enough to be able to nail it and score points."
Australia captain Jonathon Lance: "I think we performed well in patches, really well in certain points. After half time and the first 20 minutes we showed what we can do if we gel as a team, we just need to now turn that into a full 80 minute performance with the better teams like South Africa coming up. You can't afford to slack off against those teams so if we can turn those into 80 minute performances I think everything is looking good.
"It's obviously a big game with South Africa being a part of the Tri Nations. They obviously have a talented young side, so for us it's now just about recovering and getting ready for the next game and concentrating on what we can do to win the game and not what they can do to us. If we concentrate on how we play and control what we can control it will be fine."
Tonga coach Nili Tu'ipulotu: "I think we didn't play too bad, but Australia was better. We had a lot of defensive problems, like our tackling wasn't good and Australia shift the ball around so we ended up chasing them all day. I think our next game is a must win for us to maintain our status in the tournament next year and we must prepare very hard because that will be our final chance to be in the safe side of the tournament."
http://www.irb.com/jwc/news/newsid=2...ustralia+tonga
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