THE bookmakers might make them 50-1 outsiders, but Tonga head coach Mana Otai is confident his side can continue the trend for World Cup surprises by beating reigning world champions New Zealand at St James’ Park.

While the All Blacks head into tonight’s game with a perfect record of three wins from three games, Tonga’s only success came against the minnows of Namibia and was accompanied by defeats to Georgia and Argentina.

None of the South Sea Island teams have been particularly impressive to date, and it is hard to see that changing as the All Blacks attempt to sharpen their skills ahead of next weekend’s quarter-final in Cardiff.

A Tongan win tonight would be an even bigger surprise than Japan beating South Africa on the opening weekend of the competition, but Otai is remaining upbeat despite the scale of the task facing his players.

“Anybody can beat New Zealand – it’s only a game,” said the Tonga boss. “I think we have the potential to do so. On the day, it’s about whether we can put our best foot forward – we believe we are capable of it if we play to the best of our ability.

“It’s a huge challenge, but I think for us, we’re more excited than overawed by the opportunity. It’s not very often we get the chance to play against the current number one team in the world. We know we’ve only won one game so far, but I think we’ve done all we could within the short turnaround.”

While the All Blacks are famous for their pre-match haka, Tonga have their own ritual war dance known as the sipi tau.

Having won the coin toss to be recognised as the home side, the Tongans will perform the sipi tau before the haka, and Otai is hoping that winning the battle of the dances will enable them to gain a psychological edge.

“Traditionally, if you look back at the origin of the war dance, it’s about psyching the opposition out,” he said. “Some people take it out of context and say it’s disrespectful, but I think if you look at the origin of how it was started, you don’t let the other person psyche you out.”