Meninga: Kumuls were underdone

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By TRAVERTZ MABONE

THIS year’s Australian Prime Minister’s XIII coach Mal Meninga expressed his disappointment over PNG’s performance in the Four Nations tournament during the past weeks.
The rugby league icon made the comments at a sponsorship presentation to local rugby union club Brothers by Kramer Ausenco yesterday.
He said that the team needed a lot of work and did not have the time to prepare well before entering the event.
“I feel a bit sorry for them it was the venial decisions of their administration that led the team in putting up such a performance.”
He said that the Kumuls side was unfairly underdone when going in to face the world’s three top nations.
He also said that the competition in England and Australia were of an extremely high standard and if the PNG players entered the National Rugby League competition in Australia and the English Super League  as they could be more competitive in the short term.
Meninga said both England and PNG can do much better than what they had shown and pointed to the progress of a country such as New Zealand that did not even have a strong indigenous competition.
Meninga said that the only way forward for PNG rugby league was to have a good structure, a quality national competition, a well managed schoolboy competition, sustainable development programmes and get the infrastructure right.
He said that only then would it provide a stepping stone for youngsters to aspire to go forth and play in the NRL or the British Super League or for Papua New Guinea.