Kangaroos meet fire against fire in Tonga



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Kangaroos, world champions, hope to avoid consecutive defeats for the first time since 2015.

A little more than 24 hours after the kickoff, kangaroos focus on improving their performance.

Captain Boyd Cordner, who led his club Roosters to first place in the NRL, and NSW's win in the home state this year, said: "It would be really nice to finish with a win, especially after last week's defeat. "

Tomorrow night, the kangaroos will face Mate Ma & Tonga for the very first time. They will be greeted at Mt Smart Stadium by a sold-out crowd, largely made up of Tonga fans.

Coach Mal Meninga said the reaction of the Tongan fans this week proves that it is great that the match be played here.

He said: "This has been totally dominated all week by the media [Tonga]. "

He is excited about the prospect of playing in front of a sold-out crowd and says that's what his team was missing.

"That's what we want to do: put on a green and gold jersey and play in front of big crowds."

According to Cordner, the events of the week showed how passionate Tongan fans were about their country.

"If you ask some of our boys who have the Tongan heritage – the stories that came out this week – with obviously Felise [Kaufusi] and Tyson [Frizzell] saying that their families will support Tonga, "he said.

Meninga insists that his team will be more than ready to meet the atmosphere and emotions that the crowd will arouse during the kickoff.

"We do not come because we have to absorb the emotion, we come with our emotion, you know we play for our country," he said.

After the Kiwi defeat last week, the Kangaroos returned to the training ground to improve their game.

Meninga said her team focused on what she could do to improve her performance and did not pay attention to Tongan players. These include former Kangaroo Andrew Fifita, who changed allegiance on the eve of the World Cup last year and Jason Taumalolo, who did the same with the Kiwis.

"We know how good Andrew is and we know how important Taumalolo is to them and the rest of the group, but they have never been very interested in them. to do good to come with a very good performance. "

The Kangaroos suffered a final defeat in 2015 after being beaten by the Kiwis during the ANZAC test in Brisbane, after defeating the Australians in the Four Nations final in Wellington in 2014.

The historic match between Tonga and Australia begins at 7:45 pm Saturday at Smart Mt Stadium.

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