Nations Cup: Tonga prove too strong for spirited Zimbabwe
ROUND ONE WRAP: This weekend marked the beginning of the World Rugby Nations Cup 2026 and 59 tries across six absorbing encounters made it an unforgettable opening round of action.
Georgia, Tonga, Chile and the USA were taken to the wire in hard-fought battles, while Samoa’s victory was comfortable and Spain and Canada shared the spoils.
Spirited Sables impress, but Tonga prove too strong
This Pool F encounter at RWC 2027 was the perfect beginning to this two-part saga, which will conclude in Queensland next year.
The lively crowd probably couldn’t believe their eyes that after 23 minutes there was still no score that eventually ended in a 36-26 win for Tonga.
Eventually, a lovely looping pass from Patrick Pellegrini to Telusa Veainu broke the deadlock. It didn’t take long for Tonga to grab their second, loosehead Fatongia Paea diving over with a clever finish.
The Sables finally responded, and Matthew Mandioma finished it off from a maul.
Despite being reduced to 14 men, Fine Inisi showed great resilience, stretching out for the score and giving Tonga a healthy lead at half-time.
The second half belonged to one man, and that was 22-year-old Edward Sigauke, who dazzled the Denver crowd with his dancing feet. He first brilliantly set up Tino Mavesere after carving through the Tongan defence. Ten minutes later, after a brilliant dummy from Matthew Mandioma, Sigauke received the ball in space and from then on, only one outcome was inevitable.
In between those two tries, the man mountain of Godfrey Muzanargwo scored an exceptional try in the corner, and you began to feel there was a belief in Zimbabwe that they could pull off an opening-day upset. A Patrick Pellegrini sin-bin further instilled that.
However, in the space of four minutes, Tonga’s physicality up front proved too much, and they scored two tries to do enough to earn a hard-fought win.
*Meanwhile, an end-to-end thriller saw Georgia come out on top 41-34 against Uruguay, while Samoa ran riot in a 66-19 win over Hong Kong China in Santiago.
Chile gave their home fans something to cheer about with their 48-31 victory over Romania, while the USA edged Portugal 30-29 in an Independence Day thriller.
Nations Cup Round One results:
Uruguay 34-41 Georgia
Samoa 66-19 Georgia
Chile 48-31 Romania
Tonga 36-26 Tonga Zimbabwe
USA 30-29 Portugal
Canada 42-42 Spain
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