IT was a historic game – the first Test of the first ever Tonga tour to this country and therefore it was a historic result.
And if the RFL had been able to plan the game in detail beforehand, it wouldn’t have deviated much from a 12-12 half-time score, England then stretching the lead to 22-12, before Tonga came back with a late converted try to threaten a late victory, while not managing to pull it off.
So England will go into the second Test at Huddersfield on Saturday one game ahead in the series and with enough momentum behind the series to draw a decent crowd to the John Smith’s Stadium, which has a 7,000 greater capacity than the Totally Wicked Stadium.
Coming into the game, there were a significant number of questions in my mind about England’s likely performance.
How would they bounce back from that agonising World Cup semi-final defeat against Samoa in 2022?
Would their coach Shaun Wane be able to construct a game plan that would give us confidence in his leadership for this Test series and beyond?
How would England cope with only a week’s preparation time after the previous week’s Grand Final, compared to the Tongans, who had about six weeks to prepare?
How would England cope without their absent captain George Williams, who can only return for the third Test at Headingley?
How would Jack Welsby handle the captaincy and would it interfere with his normal game?
How would a new young halfback combination of Mikey Lewis and Harry Smith combine and how would they exercise control of the England game plan?
And how would the England forwards handle a Tongan pack that was selected totally from the NRL?
In the latter case, Shaun Wane’s response was to select four players who also earn their living in the NRL in his starting lineup, with Tom Burgess, John Bateman, Elliott Whitehead and Victor Radley all selected in the forwards, with only Daryl Clark and Matty Lees starting from Super League.
But his seven starting backs were all Super League players, with Lewis replacing the suspended Williams, while Dom Young’s illness last week made it an easy selection on the wings, with Tommy Makinson and Tom Johnstone earning the starting spots and a centre combination of Harry Newman and Toby King.
Johnstone repaid his coach by scoring two great tries – the first one coming from a brilliant long Welsby pass that put the winger in at the corner, and the second when he intercepted Will Hopoate’s pass, which was effectively the game breaking moment.
Tonga coach Kristian Woolf was returning to his old stomping ground of St Helens, where he won three Super League titles, and I suspect he would be reasonably satisfied with his team’s performance, if a coach can ever be satisfied with a defeat.
But I think the question I asked above about the best amount of preparation time for a Test series was probably answered in favour of England. At times, the Tongan team looked a little out of practice and I would guess that they would improve for this Saturday’s second Test.
One of their most impressive players was Will Hopoate, who played his last game of the season for St Helens only two weeks earlier. He dealt impressively with a good England kicking game, which was well directed by Smith.
I have little doubt that Smith, after his Grand Final performance and now this game against Tonga, will be on the radar of the NRL clubs, for whom good halfbacks are like gold.
And if Lewis has another good game on Saturday, Wane could face an interesting dilemma of having to decide whether to then drop him to bring back Williams or not.
There are still a lot of very interesting questions remaining for the next two matches of this intriguing series.
And wasn’t it good to see plenty of Tongans in St Helens supporting their side?
The England supporters were relatively quiet, partly because they don’t have any animosity towards the Tongans in the way they would have to the Australians, for example.
But I’m sure the volume will rise as the series continues.
