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David Fifita has wasted no time in making his mark in a Tonga jersey, scoring a hat trick as they defeated France 48-12 in Halifax.
The Titans backrower was in Kangaroos contention until recently, but switched to play for his heritage at this World Cup, giving an already stacked Tonga forward pack more firepower.
He proved his value early, opening the scoring for Mate Ma’a Tonga, with Manly duo Christian Tuipulotu and Tolu Koula also scoring their first at international level.
France will be slightly disappointed with their showing. They played a close-to full-strength side and were blown away by a powerful pack that was still missing some key components who coach Kristian Woolf chose to rest.
New Zealand have had the perfect start to their tour to England with an ominous 74-0 win over Leeds Rhinos in their warm-up match.
Michael Maguire’s men were near flawless, leaving Leeds – who played in the Super League Grand Final two weeks ago – massively overmatched.
Madge left all his Parramatta and Penrith players out, as well as Joey Manu and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, but the Kiwis were still far too strong for a post-season Leeds side.
(Photo by Will Matthews/PA Images via Getty Images)
Seb Kris ran in a first half hat trick and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad made his claim to start next week’s opener against Lebanon with two tries. As if to underline the depth, Jahrome Hughes came on at half time with New Zealand already 34-0 to the good.
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Ronaldo Mulitalo grabbed a double and Jeremy Marshall-King, Brandon Smith, both Bromwich brothers and Briton Nikora all crossed.
Dean Whare, based in Europe with the Catalans Dragons, guested and scored, while the last emotional moment was a haka to send off Thomas Leuluai, who played just short of an hour in the famous black jumper to bring down the curtain on a 20-year career.
Mitchell Moses was absent, but Lebanon proved far too good for Wales in their warm-up clash with Adam Doueihi and Jacob Kiraz leading the Cedars to a 38-22 win.
Bulldogs star Kiraz stole the show with a superb solo try, splitting the Welsh defence and burning the fullback to score in the early stages.
Elsewhere, Greece fought back to claim a 34-34 draw with Bradford Bulls at Odsal, with a late Lachlan Ilias penalty coming back off the post to deny them the win.
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The Titans had trailed 34-18 going into the final quarter, but late tries from Souths hooker Peter Mamouzelos, Newtown Jets maverick Billy Magoulias and London Skolars forward Adam Vrahnos levelled the scores.
Greece fielded all eight of their players from their domestic competition in the warm-up, which marked their first competitive run since they qualified for the tournament in 2019.
