TONGAN coach Jim Love largely blamed South African touch judge Mark Lawrence for the fact his side had a player sent off and two sin-binned against Wales on Saturday and suffered a high penalty count.

Lawrence was the referee Love claims cost his New Zealand Maoris a victory against Australia.

"It came out in the report afterwards that his decisions were wrong, so I was very happy to see him there again today," he said sarcastically afterwards.

"He seemed to ref a pretty good game. Most of the penalties were from the lineout and he seemed to call them."

As for Scottish referee Rob Dickson, Love said: "I suppose he penalised us for going over at the rucks, but I'm not sure that warranted two yellow cards.

"I didn't see the sending off offence too closely, but the guy allegedly stamped on came over on our side at the ruck.

"I was disappointed with a few of the decisions and I can only put it down to interpretation.

"But I felt both sides were doing the same thing, yet we seemed to be the team who got penalised."

Asked if he thought Wales could beat Australia next week, Love said: "No. We had 13 men for ten minutes and they couldn't score a try. With 15 Aussies defending they have no chance."

Wales defence coach Clive Griffiths said of Tonga: "I thought a number of their tackles were a bit borderline.

"It was a worrying thing, especially with the game against Australia coming up, but I thought we bounced up every time and handled it pretty well.

"We picked the tempo up in the second half and scored some lovely tries by being bold. "To beat Australia you have to be bold and score tries against them, though England won despite being outscored two tries to nil.

"It's a massive challenge, but nobody gave the Wales Rugby League squad a chance against them in the World Cup 12 months ago, but we got stuck into them and it was an epic battle.

"It will be the same on Sunday. You have to meet them on the gain line, with or without the ball. If we don't stand up to be counted it's going to be a hard afternoon.

"They are consistent with a never-say-die attitude and you have to admire them for that, but we'll be underdogs and there will be less pressure on."

Regarding Tonga, he said: "We said before the game that actions speak louder than words and it was time to shut up and put up and we'll have to put up a lot against Australia.

"In that respect Tonga was ideal preparation. We knew they would climb into us and that's what the Aussies will do."

*Pictured: Wales captain Scott Quinnell breaks through the Tongan defence