Tonga secured a strong 36-0 win over Lebanon to continue their perfect start to the 2026 Rugby League World Cup. 

The Mate Ma’a didn’t have it all their own way, with Michael Cheika’s side posing plenty of questions across the 80 minutes, but they led throughout the game thanks to braces from Sione Katoa and Jojo Fifita alongside other tries from Paul Alamoti, Tolutau Koula and Leka Halasima.

Here is everything we learned from Tonga’s round two victory.

Semi-finals bound?

This victory has surely helped Tonga put one foot in the semi-finals now, with Kristian Woolf’s side making it two wins on the spin in the pool stage.

With the format of the competition, Tonga just need to ensure they keep the rest of the chasing pack in Pool B/C, such as England, Papua New Guinea and Samoa, at arm’s length to book their spot in the knockouts, and this win will go a long way to doing that. It now leaves them top of the combined table at the time of writing, in the round where the unbeaten Kumuls and main rivals Samoa also go toe-to-toe. It’s not a guarantee, with them facing Samoa in their final fixture of the pool stage, but it is certainly advantage Tonga heading into that final weekend.

In the same breath, that also leaves England with a tougher task to reach the knockouts. In a weird way, England will now be among Tonga’s biggest supporters next weekend.

This result means that Tonga simply have to beat Samoa next weekend for them to go through. If that happens, England will then need to beat both PNG and France by a bigger score than Samoa do, should they also get a win over the Kumuls tomorrow.

Same result, different method

Tonga showed a slightly different edge about them today, but the result was exactly the same; and that should leave the rest of the competition worrying.

There was a methodical, tactile feeling to Tonga’s display tonight. It was calculated, meticulous, predator-like. They pounced on any loose play from their brave opponents.

Look at their scores in the first-half as the prime example of that. Tonga’s opener came in the very first set after a concentrated period of Lebanon possession in the red-zone while their third came after an intercept on their own goal-line with Lebanon looking to strike. It carried on in the second-half as well, with a Lehi Hopoate break from seemingley nowhere resulted in a try for Fifita moments later. They just took advantage of any chink in Lebanon’s armour to deadly effect, and it was wonderful to see.

That sort of ruthlessness about their game, that sort of efficiency about their game, that sort of overall danger about their game should send alarm bells ringing across the competition.

Tonga showed they can beat you in whatever way they want. That’s a scary thought.

Brave Lebanon

The scoreline probably got away from the Cedars today, but they deserve a lot of praise for their display tonight.

They really had their opponents sweating at times, especially in the first-half. Their kick game down their right edge, built around Jason Saab’s work in the air, posed serious questions of the Tongan defence and nearly resulted in scores to boot. They also kept at it rather than just going into their shell when Tonga got on the front-foot, which just reflects the character of their side.

It did get away from them late in the day, but they were brave and put themselves in a good light.