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How Vern Cotter plans to shut down Tonga's new superstar backline

(Photos / Getty Images)

Vern Cotter has tasked his players with the daunting job of shutting down former Wallaby Israel Folau and ex-All Blacks Malakai Fekitoa and Charles Piutau who will all be making their debuts for Tonga against hosts Fiji in the opening Pacific Nations Cup match in Suva on Saturday.

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The high profile trio have taken advantage of a change in World Rugby’s eligibility rules and their presence in the Tonga side is already attracting plenty of attention.

While Fekitoa, who won the last of his 24 All Blacks caps in 2017, and Piutau, who won his 17th and final All Blacks cap in 2015, have been impressing in the English Premiership for Wasps and Bristol respectively in recent seasons, Folau has been forced to play rugby league with the Catalan Dragons in France after his high profile sacking from the Australian Rugby Union for making anti-gay social media posts in 2019. He eventually settled his legal action against the Union out of court and is now four years since Folau won the last of his 73 caps for Australia against England.

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Despite all three players having been out of the test arena, Fiji head coach Cotter is wary of their potential impact in Tongan colours. He told Fiji Times: “We know those players have certain traits and we will look to shut them down in that area.

“Tonga is always physical so we need to be ready to face the one-on-one confrontations from the set-pieces. Our go forward is important and we need to dominate in that area.

“Folau is very good in the air depending on how we kick. Fekitoa has good feet in the midfield and we will have to keep an eye on him. We know how dangerous they are so we will focus more on our game in order to shut them out.”

Cotter can take heart from the arrival in Fiji of his overseas players for the tournament which is a key part of his build up to the Rugby World Cup in France next year. “As players come in, it will be a good time to test them and obviously prepare them for the November series and the Rugby World Cup,” added Cotter.

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“For the players that came in last week, we would like to give them an opportunity to see how they play. You will probably see a shift in our games and we have faith these players have what it takes to do the job.”

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RedWarrior 14 minutes ago
Many England fans echoing the same gripe following Six Nations loss

The English defense was excellent in the first half. This is considering Ireland's attack has improved significantly since the Autumn with former Leinster attack coach Goodman. Ireland were beaten by NZ in the Autumn, are behind SA and arguably behind France so de facto 4th in order (rankings take time to catch up) As Eddie Jones said Ireland are still in that elite group so England's domination in the first half is noteworthy.

I believe they have spent the time since the Autumn largely on defence. On broken play they were relying on Smiths instint along with some jiggery pokery. For Smiths early line break a Twindaloo blocked Baird which left the gap for smith. It looked like he did Aki, but Baird was a little late arriving and clever play by Tom Curry allowed the gap for Smith. Earls line break was Smith spotting Baird coming out and beating him with a beautiful pass to Earl.

We saw the rehearsed plays for a couple of Ireland's tries. The Aki try was just identifying that England tended to hide Smith on the wing creating a vulnerability which Ireland exploited with one of Akis great finishes.

Although Ireland were relaxing at the end the two English tries were good enough quality and we may see more of it next week (Scotland will also have taken note).

Although on the easier side of the draw Borthwick almost took England to a RWC final.

But in common with the top4 you need to have firepower to get those tries in big games. Can Borthwick manage that? I don't think so.

Next week even if England have a great first half again, you would be looking at France converting 3 of those Irish chances and pushing on after the break.

Can Borthwick develop a plan to beat France in the next few years. If the answer is no England need to find someone who can.

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