WALES head coach John Kear has hailed his side following a brave performance against Tonga tonight.
The Welsh led 6-4 until the final few minutes of the first-half before a Tonga onslaught at the end of the half left Kristian Woolf’s men leading 16-6 at the break.
At the start of the second forty minutes, Tonga again exerted their authority with two quickfire tries, but Wales never gave in and kept the South Sea Islanders to just three tries in both halves.
And Kear revealed just how proud he was of his Wales side.
“They are just all heart and you have to take your hat off to them,” Kear said. “They committed totally against a big rugby league team. Again I’m proud of them but we have lost again.
“They gave everything and their resilience is incredible. We have to realise they are a full-time outfit, I said to Mike Rush ‘we are playing a good NRL team’ and that is why I was so proud of our effort.”
The Wales head coach also had a few words to say about the debut of Wakefield Trinity winger Kyle Evans, who enjoyed a superb international debut, stopping bigger centre Siosifa Talakai on a number of occasions.
“There have been some players who have come up with some great efforts. I thought he (Evans) was outstanding and I thought his try was great and he came up with big some defensive plays. He can be very proud of his debut.”
