Tonga’uiha relishing ‘massive’ scrum test

FEW OPPONENTS can claim to have got the better of Northampton’s 22 stone prop Soane Tonga’uiha in the scrum in recent years, but the Samoan admits Leinster’s Mike Ross is in an elite club of one.

Tonga’uiha is the only Saint nominated for the ERC’s player of the season award, and his performances against Ulster and Perpignan in the quarter and semi-finals of the Heineken Cup were brutally effective.

But the 29-year-old admits Ross got the better of him during the Irishman’s three years at Harlequins, giving the Leinster front row an unexpected psychological advantage ahead of tomorrow’s final in Cardiff.