The next generation of Papua New Guinea stars will descend on Britain next month when their exciting Under-19s arrive in North Lanarkshire for the inaugural Rugby League Commonwealth Championship. PNGRFL Chief Executive Brad Tassell is is in no doubt that the first PNG team to ever play in Scotland will be as unpredictably thrilling as their predecessors.
PNG will select their squad only three weeks before the tournament. National selectors will use the National Gala days over the 6-9 June to assess 80-100 players from 14 provinces who have been identified by PNGRFL’s regional development officers. Players who are eligible who play in the Digicel Cup and the full-time Hunters squad who play in the Queensland Cup, will also be considered for selection in the final squad outside of the selection trials.
“These players will see this competition as a career opportunity,” admitted Tassell. “The PNGRFL and Team Kumul see this programme as the perfect way to identify and groom our next crop of 18 and 19 year old players for the full international programme and for the Hunters’ Queensland Cup programme. This is an opportunity for them to experience international competition and be tested on their abilities to graduate to the next level.”
While there will be no members from the current Team Kumul squad which followed victory over Scotland in a World Cup warm-up last autumn with such a disappointing RLWC2013 campaign, the young Kumuls will be hungry to make that next step up.
“All of these young players want to be part of Team Kumul and the Hunters. They are itching for a chance and I’ve no doubt they’ll be busting a gut every minute they’re involved! They have a hunger to succeed unlike any I’ve ever seen. Stanton Albert (brother of Wellington Albert, contracted to the Panthers in the NRL), who is part of the Hunters programme, turns 19 this year and at 6'3" and 108kg with good speed, will certainly be under strong consideration for the final squad.”
“The players are being drawn from the local leagues, Schoolboys comps, Digicel Cup and the PNG Hunters programme,” explains Tassell. “We expect most of the players selected will have been in the schoolboys system for the past three years, however some who have been performing well in the Digicel Cup will also come under consideration. Most of the technical staff will also have been involved in the upper level of the development programme over the past three years and will be well known to the PNGRFL. There will also likely be a couple new to the programme who are being blooded for experience.”
PNG will play England, South Africa and Canada in Group B on Friday 27 June, with play-off games on Saturday 28 June. All games are at Broadwood Stadium in Cumbernauld and admission is FREE.