Overview
- Tonga defeated Samoa 20-18 on Sunday, with captain Addin Fonua-Blake scoring the late match-winning try to secure Tonga a semi-final against New Zealand.
- Samoa also advanced to the last four and will meet Australia, but the game exposed costly missed conversions and left playmaker Chanel Harris‑Tavita hobbling from the field with a suspected hamstring issue.
- England were eliminated from the tournament on points difference after Tonga’s win made it impossible for them to climb into the top two of the combined Pools B and C.
- The match drew a sellout crowd of 29,411 at Western Sydney Stadium, a venue record that underlined strong Pasifika support and the commercial pull of Tonga‑Samoa fixtures.
- The result has renewed scrutiny of the tournament’s reduced 10‑team format because early results and points‑difference rules had outsized impact on qualification and seeding.