Doing hard yards
The National, Thursday October 10th, 2013
THE Kumuls are back on track, with training for the World Cup starting in earnest in Port Moresby.
Despite the disappointment over the 50-10 loss to the Australians in Kokopo recently, the home-grown players and Gold Coast Titan David Mead were hard at it after taking a weeklong break.
Mead was running freely. The young man from Tubusereia has been cleared after extensive physiotherapy for a back injury.
Kumul coach Adrian Lam will be keeping a close eye on his charges as he will be under the pump to come up with a “master plan” with a cross-section of the rugby league fraternity putting him and coaching director Mal Meninga under the spotlight.
Lam will welcome his Newcastle Knights enforcer Neville Costigan, Paul Aiton, Nene McDonald and Meninga on Friday.
Team Kumul general manager Matthew Natusch said Penrith Panther James Segeyaro was waiting on a medical review by specialists in Sydney to give him the all clear.
“If James is cleared he will come on Friday as well. Ray Thompson has a North Queensland Cowboys commitment on Friday but will travel up on Saturday,” Natusch said.
He confirmed English Super League duo Jason Chan and Menzie Yere had just completed their club commitments.
Chan and Yere will stay in the United Kingdom and join the team when they arrive there.
“Otherwise all players are injury free,” Natusch said.
He confirmed the team will leave on Monday and arrive in Manchester on October 15.
“The Kumuls will play the warm-up match with Scotland on October 19 at the Featherstone Stadium,” he said. The first World Cup match against France is on October 27.