Maka's men fit and raring to go

Tonga coach Isitolo Maka is thankful that his side are well rested for their crunch Pool A clash with France on Saturday.

The Sea Eagles will have enjoyed a 10-day break since beating Japan 31-18 on 21 September come kick-off, while France are coming off a 37-17 defeat to New Zealand last Saturday.

When France take to the Wellington Regional Stadium pitch for their final pool match, it will be in the knowledge they need only a point against the Pacific Islanders to guarantee a quarter-final place at RWC 2011.

However, the Tonga coach believes his side will be fit and fired up for a match they must win to have any hope of making the last eight.

"The boys have been training well. Straight after the game against Japan (on 21 September) we had two days' rest and then back into pretty physical training, contact, and rest on Sunday," coach Maka said.

"Everything has been going well. We're ready, as much as we can be."

Longer break

Tonga's longer break has also allowed the coach's brother and team captain Finau Maka to recover from a rib injury.

After the defeat to the All Blacks, France coach Marc Lièvremont said he wanted to send out a team against Tonga similar to the one he would select for the quarter-finals.

If that is the case, regular fly half Francois Trinh-Duc could be getting nervous as Morgan Parra - the converted scrum half who played at No.10 against New Zealand - has again been preferred. Trinh-Duc remains on the bench.

Lièvremont has made three changes to the team which lost to New Zealand, with hooker William Servat and number 8 Raphael Lakafia returning to the first XV after starting earlier matches while Alexis Palisson makes his RWC debut on the left wing.

Hooker Dimitri Szarzewski drops to the bench to make way for Servat while Maxime Médard switches from wing to full back to accommodate Palisson.

But Finau Maka has not been impressed by Lièvremont's team choices with his pre-match comments raising the stakes, especially for French centres Maxime Mermoz and Aurélien Rougerie.

Quite weak

"I think maybe their centres are quite weak, just because I think Rougerie's not a centre (and he) and Maxime haven't played together for a long time," said Maka, who played in France for a decade and lives in Toulouse.

France have won two of their three previous matches against Tonga, with the Tongans defeating the French 20-16 in 1999.

France are second in Pool A on 10 points, behind New Zealand's perfect score of 15.

Tonga are on five and Canada six, meaning the Tongans must beat France by a margin that overcomes their points and try differential and then await the outcome of the Canada-New Zealand match to see who fills the second quarter-final spot from the pool.