Tonga v England: Rugby League World Cup 2017 semi-final – live!

12 min: Tonga are under some pressure now, England doing a good job of pinning them down into their own half.

McGillvary gets another try, and this was too easy!

From centre-field England run a set play and it goes right through the hands until Widdop sees Tupou and Jennings aim in on him. He then fires a ball wide to McGillvary who has no-one in front of him. That was a bad read by Tupou.

Widdop converts from wide on the right with some help from the left upright.

10 min: Widdop busts them, running onto a lovely ball by Graham. He only has Hopoate to beat and he tries a goosestep but Hopoate has him for pace (my mum would have Widdop for pace), so Widdop props and comes back inside.

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A play later England kick for the corner and only a nice catch over his head by Fusitua keeps England out. Fusitua just touches the chalk on the left touchline so it will be an England scrum.

9 min: Fifita drags in three defenders before chucking it out the back. Tonga probe down the right wing with Tupou but he’s collared.

8 min: A strong charge from Hill in midfield gives Hodgson an opportunity for an early kick and a 40/20 attempt but he can’t pull it off.

6 min: The crowd haven’t let up, roaring with every Tonga play. Widdop takes a bomb under pressure on his own 10m line.

4 min: On the last, 20m from the Tonga line, England put up a bomb that’s nowhere deep enough. But as it drops wide near the Tonga 20m line McGillvary comes from nowhere to leap and claim the ball and in a flash he flicks the ball out the back where, if Whitehead had caught the ball (and it was just behind him), he would have been hard to stop.

2 min: England negotiate their first set without error and Gale kicks long where Hopoate catches safely. Later in the set Tonga are penalised when Tupou shoves an English player out of the way after Hingano put up a bomb. The ball was nowhere near Tupou, but then again it wasn’t much of a shove either. The kind of shove ones performs when closing a car door.

1 min: The semi is underway, Tonga kicking deep to Luke Gale who allows Graham the dubious honour of running into the powerful Tonga pack.

Tonga are performing their traditional pre-game war cry. Don’t mean to harp, but the crowd are going berserk. It sounds like a crowd scene from a Beatles concert in the ’60s. Fantastic!

The war cry is a frightening sight but good ol’ James Graham is staring the Tongans down with that inscrutable, white cliffs of Dover face of his.

God Save the Queen gets a rousing reception from the crowd, not minding for the moment that there must be a better choice. Wonderwall?

Now it’s Tonga’s turn – and it has the crowd roaring in delight!

To give you the gist, here’s Tonga’s national anthem as performed a few weeks ago against Scotland. The Tongan players were leaking with passion.

Today’s game will be something else, and you can’t take for granted how big an occasion this is for the tiny Pacific nation which has a population of just 107,000. Word is that Tonga’s King Tupou VI and Queen Nanasipau’u are in attendance.

Scenes from Mt Smart Stadium underline that this is effectively a Tongan home game. The atmosphere looks incredible. Actually, can you see atmosphere? Or must it be heard. Either way, or neither way, you could (look out…) cut it with a knife.

The Tongan players in the sheds have come into a tight huddle, crowding around the raised arm and fist of the player in the middle.

England slap each other’s backs and get themselves primed, as both teams now make their way onto the ground.

As if England fans need any reminding, this will be their nation’s fourth consecutive World Cup semi-final – but not since 1995 have they actually won one to advance to the final. That was against Wales at Old Trafford where England won 25-10 and pushed Australia all the way in the final at Wembley, losing 16-8. A handy team they had back then too, what with the likes of Jason Robinson, Martin Offiah, Gary Connolly, Denis Betts and Andy Farrell.

In the intervening World Cups England have faced – and been defeated by – New Zealand each time in the semis, but thanks to Tonga’s stunning upset defeat of the Kiwis a fortnight ago that scenario couldn’t play out this time. No doubt England and their fans will be happy not having to face old ghosts today.

It’s early in the UK, of course, but I wonder how many are tuning in right now? Drop me a line if you like: [email protected] or tweet me @PFConnolly. That, of course, applies to everyone, not just sleep-addled Englanders.

Quick fact: These two teams have never met in a full international so there’s no history to fall back in using fairly meaningless stats in order to predict a winner. That said, no Pacific Island nation has ever made it to a World Cup final so a chance to create history may well drive the men in red today.

England are unchanged from the team that defeated PNG last week. For Tonga, Sio Siua Taukeiaho returns from injury.

Look for another big game from England’s Jermaine McGillvary. The winger has scored tries in each of his past nine games and he’s formed a formidable partnership with his centre, Kallum Watkins. They’ll be up against fliers Michael Jennings and Daniel Tupou, former Roosters teammates. Should be a cracking contest.

Welcome one and all to this live blog of Tonga v England in the second of the Rugby League World Cup semi-finals. Last night in Brisbane, in the first semi-final, Australia steamrolled Fiji 54-6, with Kangaroos winger Valentine Holmes bagging himself an astonishing six tries. Over the next two hours in Auckland, Tonga and England will compete for the right to face the Aussies in next Saturday night’s final in Brisbane. Given how well Australia have been playing in this tournament that seems about as fair as rewarding the winner of a cock fight with a bout against a crocodile but the Tongan or English players will face that hurdle when they get to it.

While Tonga will enjoy the majority of the support at a sold-out Mt Smart Stadium today (and check this out!) …

… England will go into the match as favourites – and I’d say they’d have the best chance of upsetting Australia next week. Tonga, however, should not be underestimated. The Pacific Islanders have got this far without losing a game, a run of wins that included their thrilling 28-22 upset against New Zealand in Hamilton, a win that ensured they’d avoid facing Australia until the final.

Though blessed with size, speed, exotic vowel arrangements, and an array of former Kangaroos and Kiwi representatives like Jason Taumalolo, Andrew Fifita, Manu Ma’u and Sio Siua Taukeiaho, the Tongans most impressive characteristic to date has been their discipline and handling, with the team completing more than 80 per cent of their sets over their past three games. Tonga just got over the line against Lebanon last weekend, of course, but that could have been down to the effects of their emotionally draining win against the Kiwis the weekend prior. Kristian Woolf’s team should be primed for this one.

England, meantime, played their best match of the tournament in the opener against Australia. Since then, though they’ve won three from three, they’ve had some difficulty controlling their games, something that would give their coach Wayne Bennett a real case of the squints. Against Papua New Guinea last week, for example, England’s completion rate was just 57%. It says something about the talent at their disposal that they won easily enough but if they want to win today and give themselves a chance next week they’ll need to be less profligate when in possession. It’s time for England to step up.

Really looking forward to this one, it could be a belter.

Kick-off: 6pm local, 4pm AEDT, 5am GMT.

Paul will be here shortly. In the meantime, have a read about how Australia booked their place in next weekend’s final.