De Belin open to play for Kumuls

ST George Illawarra Dragons forward Jack de Belin is open to playing for the Papua New Guinea Kumuls in this year’s Rugby League World Cup in England.
The 30-year-old has spoken publicly about his National Rugby League (NRL) return for the first time, a month since rape charges against him were dropped and revealed his desire to return to the State of Origin arena.
The Cootamundra Bulldogs junior hadn’t played since 2018 under the NRL’s no-fault stand-down policy as he was charged with a serious crime.
But after the jury failed to reach a verdict in de Belin’s case, charges were dropped, the path was clear for him to play rugby league again and three weeks ago he was back in the first grade fold.
“My nan was born there,” he told Dragons TV about the possibility of representing PNG in the Oct 23-Nov 27 showpiece event.
“So I’m eligible to play for them.
“When Adrian Lam was my Under-20s coach, he was also the PNG coach and he was trying to get me to play for them.
“At the time I wasn’t ready, but you never know.”
The former New South Wales (NSW) Origin lock said it took some time to get used to being back at the NRL level.
“It’s great to be back playing football again,” he said.
“I’m grateful for every game I get to play.
“The game is different now and it’s taken me a little while to get there, but I feel like I’m finally finding my legs.”
De Belin described the time away from the game during his lengthy court battle to clear his name as “challenging”, and was relishing being back for the Red V, even if the squad was now made up of a few former NRL foes.
“It means so much (to be back),” he said.
“Football is such a massive part of my life, to not be able to play it for close to three years was obviously challenging at times, but it’s great being back out there, and I love being around the boys and all the coaching staff.
“A lot of new faces and ex-Broncos players here now as well.
“But it’s been great, especially a lot of players I used to play against, and now that I have them on my side it’s great and I’m excited for the rest of the year.
“The first week threw me out a little bit, but I feel every week I’m getting better.
“To be honest, I’m kind of happy because it suits my game.”
De Belin flagged his intention to earn his Blues jersey back next year, having last played for NSW in all three games of the 2018 Origin series. I’d love to be playing Origin, but that’s a little bit of wishful thinking there, so will move that over to next year,” he said.
“But for the Dragons, (the goal is) definitely to get back to finals footy and have a deep run if not win the whole thing.”
– WWOS