The Junior Wallabies are expecting an ‘angry’ Tonga in their second Oceania clash on Tuesday, backs coach Shane Arnold says.
Australia won its first clash, against Fiji, 51-5 but Tonga was on the end of a big 97-0 defeat against New Zealand, something Arnold said they’d want to avenge.
“We expect them to be quite angry after the last result,” he said.
“For us, it's probably about getting better at the things we're trying to do and being aware that we're going to come up against a big angry Tongan team.”
Arnold said he was happy with how the backs functioned in their first 2018 outing, but there was still lots to work on.
“We've identified some opportunities that we probably missed and that's just a case of not recognising those opportunities,” he said.
“I think it's just a bit of an education process of what we're looking to try and achieve within our shapes and our unstructured attack.
“I think hopefully they're more aware of what we're looking for and we can realise some of those opportunities down the edge.”
One of those attacking players, Isaac Lucas, said there was certainly no complacency within the team.
“I think it was a good solid first performance but obviously there's a lot to improve on, especially just from a backs' perspective just pulling some width and just comms in the backline,” he said.
“We need to fix up a bit but.”
Isaac is the fourth Lucas brother to represent the Junior Wallabies, following Ben, Matt and Tom, all of whom are currently still playing elite rugby.
The Junior Wallabies take on Tonga on Tuesday May 1 at 5pm AEST, LIVE STREAMED on RUGBY.com.au.
