Kear preparing for new experience

AFTER four decades in rugby league there is little left for John Kear to experience, but the Wales manager will tick another box this weekend.
A former national coach of France and England, Kear will get his first taste of the passion that envelops the locals of Papua New Guinea when his team arrive today in Port Moresby for their opening World Cup game on Saturday.
PNG is the only country in the world where rugby league is the national sport and the national stadium is expected to be packed to the rafters when the Kumuls host the first of three group games in the capital. “It’s a new experience for me and it’s one of the reasons I was so excited when we got put in the same group as PNG,” said Kear, who says he is preparing his players for the cauldron they can expect.
“We’ve shown them tweets from the Aussie players when they went over to PNG in September, when the locals were banging on the bus and chasing them everywhere.
“We’ve tried to explain that it is unique, that there isn’t a country where rugby league is so much the national sport.
“So we’ve tried to prime them as best we can but it will be a new experience.”
The locals have become so excited in the past that police have used teargas to break up the crowds and Kear fully expects some of his players to lose their kit in the traditional post-match pitch invasion.
“We’ve made contingency plans in the event of, shall we say, we are asked to donate our kit to the locals,” he said.
“We’re taking another set so, should that happen, we’re still alright to play the next game,” the 62-year-old said. “Wales haven’t won a World Cup game since 2000.
“That’s one I was involved in and hopefully they can win one in the next one I’m involved with.”
Wales have beaten the Kumuls in their three games to date with the last one being their 50-10 win in 2007. The Dragons who have spent the last week in Brisbane take on the Kumuls in the Pool C fixture at the Oil Search National Football Stadium in a mid-afternoon match in Moresby’s sweltering heat, before flying to Townsville to take on Fiji on Nov 5 and meeting Ireland in their final group game in Perth a week later. – SkySports