Kumuls finish second

Sports

THE Papua New Guinea Kumuls beat Fiji 10-0 and lost to Australia 20-4 to finish second in Saturday’s Tri-Nations fixture in Suva.
The PNG LNG Kumuls started the trial format with a victory over the Bati at the ANZ Stadium with tries to captain David Mead and prop Luke Page while keeping the hosts, who had the attacking threats in Jarryd Hayne, Akuila Uate and Suliasi Vunivalu, scoreless in 40 minutes of football.
Mead said his side did not have the best start but he commended their defence.
“We didn’t start that well but I thought the boys defended really well,” Mead said.
“We held them out and we were happy with the result.”
Coach Michael Marum’s side then took on the might of world champions Australia in their second 40 minutes with a Kangaroos team not featuring rested trio of captain Cameron Smith, halfback Cooper Cronk and fullback Billy Slater, still able to beat PNG 20-4.
Kumuls back-rower Rhyse Martin scored his side’s only points with a try early in the contest.
The Kangaroos showed their class with tries to Tom Trbojevic, who scored four against the PNG PM’s 13 last month, Josh Mansour, Dane Gagai and Wade Graham.
Mead said he was proud of his team’s effort against the world’s number one side.
“The game against the defending world champions was a good testing ground for us we had some misreads and they went through and scored a couple of tries and knowing them you give them an opportunity they will take it,” the 28-year-old said of the Kangaroos.
He said the players would now return to their families before coming back to camp at the end of the week.
“We’ll do some recovery but we can’t wait to go home and see our families before we get back to camp and prepare ourselves physically and mentally for the World Cup,” Mead said.
“We’re going to take it one game at a time and hopefully we get some good performances.”
In the final contest of the evening the Bati were handed their second loss going down to the Kangaroos 18-0.
Australian coach Mal Meninga was happy with performances of some of his new players and was glad no one was injured.
Worryingly, Fiji failed to score any points but captain Kevin Naiqama said the Tri-Nations had shown them where they needed to improve.
“We’ve seen it, now it’s time to polish those mistakes before the Rugby League World Cup in Australia,” Naiqama said.