Tonga's Kingdom Cup

The inaugural Kingdom Cup Touch Tournament came to a close on Saturday the 30th of April with the Nukunuku Wildcats continuing their dominance of the Tongan touch scene by winning both the Mens and Mixed divisions.

The tournament that ran over two days (April 25 and 30) was organised by the Tonga National Touch Association (TNT) and held at the fields of Nukunuku's Wesleyan primary School. It brought together six mens teams and four mixed teams from across Tongatapu.

In the Mixed division finals Vaitaseni (also of Nukunuku) lost out narrowly to the Expendables (from Nuku'alofa) in the Semi final, with the score finishing 3-2. However in the other semi-final the Nukunuku Wildcats would gain revenge for their town by easily accounting for Team Digicel. The Wildcats took this form into the final and demolished the Exendables by an impressive seven tries. In the Mens division the Expendables drew once again with the A-Team 3-3 in the playoffs and went into sudden-death over-time or 'drop-off'. Where the first team to score wins, to add to the drama each team also has a player leave the field every two-minutes until there are only three-aside or the first try is scored. This playoff went down to the wire with Expandables scoring after both teams had been reduced to three.

In the other playoff 'TCC One' moved through uncontested as 'TCC Two' defaulted. This meant the Expendables would face the Wildcats in the semi-finals while TCC-One would play the Maufanga League. The Expendables were again left the bridesmaid as the Wildcats finished the semifinal victorious and movedonto the final. Meeting them there would be newcomers TCC One who accounted for Maufanga League after thrilling drop-off. The Mens final proved to be of a high standard and TCC started off well with the early lead, however the Wildcats weren't giving up without a fight took the lead with minutes remaining and held on to win 3-2. Mixed Winner: Nukunuku Wildcats. Runner-up: Expendables Mens Winner: Nukunuku Wildcats. Runner-up: TCC One Mens Wildcats Still Undefeated after 2 tournaments. The next touch competition will be the TNT Winter Competition, which will begin on the 28th of May at 'Apifo'ou College cricket field and will run every Saturday between 10.00am and 1.00pm. Registration forms can be picked up at the Lion Liquor (Billfish Bar) or Reef Café during working hours or by contacting Tonga National Touch directly at [email protected].