LeagueNews.co | Cooper McEnroe
The draw for next year's Rugby League World Cup has posed a challenging path for Tonga, particularly with a match against their fierce rivals Samoa scheduled for Parramatta.
Coached by Kristian Woolf, Tonga finds itself in Group C, competing against Group B teams England, Samoa, and Lebanon.
Their highly anticipated clash with Samoa is set for November 1 at CommBank Stadium and is expected to attract a large crowd, especially after this year's Pacific Cup saw 44,682 fans watch Samoa defeat Tonga 34-6 at Suncorp Stadium.
The tournament will kick off with defending champions Australia facing Pacific Cup winners and Group A opponents New Zealand on October 15 at Allianz Stadium.
The Australian team, fresh from a 3-0 series win against England in the Ashes, will also take on Fiji and the Cook Islands in subsequent weeks.
In Group A, the four teams will play each other once in a round-robin format before moving on to the semi-finals, with the final set to take place at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday, November 15.
Semi-finals are scheduled at Newcastle's McDonald Jones Stadium and Sydney's Allianz Stadium.
Groups B and C consist of three teams each, with fixtures arranged for those teams to compete three times against teams in the opposite group.