Throwback Thursday: The England-Tonga clash that resulted in four yellow and two red cards!

Drew Darbyshire 24 Oct 2019 10:38 AM

England won the inaugural Federation Shield in 2006 – but a free-for-all brawl is how the final will be remembered forever.

With the Great Britain Lions taking part in the 2006 Tri-Nations in the southern hemisphere, the Rugby Football League hosted the first-ever Federation Shield, with England, France, Samoa and Tonga participating.

The England team was what the England Knights are now, with it being made of promising Super League players and they were coached by Paul Cullen.

England beat France 26-10, Tonga 40-18 and Samoa 38-14 in the tournament and met Tonga again in the final at the Halton Stadium in Widnes.

The hosts ran-out 32-14 winners against Tonga in the final at Widnes – but the game will forever be remembered for the huge brawl near the end of the game rather than for any of the tries scored.

Tonga captain Solomon Haumono and Joe Falemaka were sent-off following the fight in the in-goal area, while Falemaka, Lopini Paea and Makasini Richter were shown yellow cards before the scrap.

England forward Brett Ferres was also sin-binned in the game – four yellows and two reds were shown in all.

Jamie Rooney, Mark Calderwood, David Hodgson, Rob Purdham and Ferres scored for England that day as they sealed a 32-14 win in front of a crowd of 3,390.