England 14-4 Tonga: Matty Ashton's double helps hosts seal series win in Huddersfield
Matty Ashton made the most of his return to the England team with two first-half tries to help them to victory in the second Test against Tonga; Harry Smith kicked a conversion and two penalties, while Tolutau Koula got Tonga's try; win seals series for England with one Test remaining
Last Updated: 28/10/23 4:51pm
Matty Ashton's two tries on his return to the England team helped them to a series-clinching 14-4 win over Tonga at Huddersfield's John Smith's Stadium.
Ashton, recalled to the side in place of the injured Tommy Makinson for the second Test of the three-match series, made the most of his opportunity as he grabbed two tries to help England to a half-time lead.
Harry Smith landed one conversion and a penalty as well to make it 12-0 to the hosts at the break, with Tonga counting the cost of handling errors and giving away set restarts for ruck infringements.
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Smith added a second penalty to extend England's lead early in the second half before the tourists hit back with an unconverted try from Tolutau Koula, but Shaun Wane's side held firm to secure the win and the overall series victory with one game remaining.
Story of the game
England picked up where they left off last weekend in St Helens and opened the scoring in the sixth minute after the ball was spread from left to right, Ashton waiting in the corner to collect the ball and rush over the whitewash - Smith's conversion followed by a penalty made it 8-0 to the hosts.
Tonga came close to a try as the ball went through the hands and Moses Suli unleashed Koula down the left but he was ushered into touch, which sparked a melee between the two sets of players.
Manly Sea Eagles winger Koula appeared the main danger for the visitors and for a moment it looked like he had unlocked the English defence with a superb turn of foot before spilling the ball in touch.
England 14-4 Tonga score summary
England: Tries - Matty Ashton (2); Goals - Harry Smith (3).
Tonga: Try - Tolutau Koula.
Moments after Tonga were denied a reply on the try line, England went up the other end and scored their second try of the afternoon when Mikey Lewis' neatly-threaded grubber fell beautifully for the onrushing Ashton who touched down for the second time.
England ran onto the field in the second half with the same intensity and could have had a third try when Mike McMeeken's kick found Tom Johnstone in acres of space but he dropped the ball with the try line at his mercy and had to settle for Smith's penalty to make it 14-0.
The away side were still looking for their first points of the game and almost had them when Isaiya Katoa's dummy freed Dion Teaupa up for the try line but Johnstone and Lewis brought him down to prevent a first try.
Tonga did most of the attacking in the second period and they looked to break away once again when Tyson Frizell latched onto a long kick and set Tui Lolohea free with his sights on the whitewash, but Johnstone was on hand once again to bring those efforts to a halt.
A few seconds later, Tonga were awarded a penalty and finally had their first score of the game as the ball went through the hands and Koula was waiting on the byline to storm over in the corner and reduce the deficit to 10 points, but that was all they could muster as they suffered a second straight defeat.
What they said
Player-of-the-match Matty Ashton, speaking to the BBC:
"I'm absolutely buzzing. It was a tough grind in the end, but I'm so proud of the boys. We dug in deep, conditions weren't great, but I'm living the dream, and this is what it means.
"I could have got a couple more [tries] - I made a couple of errors. But to get two tries in the win, I'm over the moon."
England head coach Shaun Wane, speaking to the BBC:
"I'm very, very proud - I thought it was a great effort. It was a little bit scruffy in the second half, but after the things which have been said to us this week from the opposition...they didn't win.
"That was a big driving factor for us this week...but I'm so proud of the players we got the series win and want to go one better next week."
Tonga head coach Kristian Woolf, speaking to the BBC:
"It was a good game of footy, it was a tight game of footy, and England deserve full credit there.
"We'll take a lot of learnings from that. I thought we played better than we did last week - England obviously did as well. At the end of the day, our discipline let us down."
What's next?
The series concludes with the third Test at AMT Headingley on Saturday November 4 (2.30pm kick-off). That match serves as the second part of a double-header which sees England Women face Wales (12pm). England's wheelchair team face France the following day as well (3pm).
