The Tonga ‘Ikale Tahi’ assistant coach Grant Doorey is expecting a tough encounter against Manu Samoa this Saturday.

After watching the match between Manu Samoa- Fiji Airways Flying Fijians last week,  Doorey highlighted the Samoans have gained a lot of confidence after playing the Flying Fijians and will come out very competitive.

“It was very exciting and I think the Samoans were very competitive as they were physically aggressive upfront and continued the momentum right towards the end,” Doorey said.

“We are hoping to change things around this time after playing Georgia who are ranked as 12th in the world.

“So, there are a couple of things that we need to straighten up in order to get better results this time around. We need to get it right.

“We are aware that Manu Samoa a strong team and we respect them for that.

“The World Cup as our long term goal. But for us at this point in time is to focus on our short term goal and getting better with our week to week performance in the Pacific Nations Cup.

“We are fully aware Manu Samoa will be a tough opposition for us, and we’ll take one game at a time and keeping mind our long term goal which is the World Cup.

“Every time we play in the Pacific Nations Cup we can see fireworks in terms of the level of contact and intensity and we are looking forward to that against Samoa.”

Edited by  Osea  Bola

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