Gold Coast Titans and Tonga centre Konrad Hurrell has talked up his side's chances at this year's Rugby League World Cup, as the island nation have emerged as genuine dark horses for the tournament.
Having recruited NRL stars Jason Taumalolo and Andrew Fifita away from New Zealand and Australia respectively,Tonga have earmarked themselves as the team to watch at the tournament.
Speaking to the Rugby League World Cup's official site, Hurrell credited the coach for Tonga's rise.
"Woolfy (coach Kristian Woolf) has picked a really strong team and if the other superstars know like Jase and them that Tonga has got a strong team they might have a chance of them coming back for Tonga," he said.
"If Tonga doesn't have a good team then none of the best players will come and play for us."
Hurrell also said that he expects Tonga to give a good account of themselves in the tournament, where they'll come face to face with the likes of the Kiwis in pool play.
"We'll challenge a couple of teams."
"Obviously we've got a really hard pool this World Cup, we've got Samoa, Scotland and New Zealand, but every team can be beaten."
"We've just got to get our team together and train hard and hopefully we'll come up with a couple of wins."
Tonga begin their Rugby League World Cup campaign against Scotland on October 29 in Cairns.
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