PNG passionate about rugby league

PAPUA New Guinea has a reputation for being the most passionate supporter of the rugby league in the world.
League is a popular team sport in Papua New Guinea, and is the national sport.
Be it the national team – the PNG Kumuls – and competition from our neighbours down south, rugby league has held the nation to ransom.
This weekend will definitely be a feast of rugby league – tomorrow the Kumuls battle it out with Samoa for the Oceania Cup Pacific Test.
The last meeting with Samoa was in November 2013 during the Rugby League World Cup in England. PNG lost 38-4.
The PNG Kumuls, to be led by James Segeyaro, know the importance of this game. It is not a one-off Test match like previous years.
PNG is in Pool B of the Oceania Cup with Samoa and Fiji.
The winner advances to Pool A next year to join New Zealand and Tonga.
PNG first came into contact with rugby league during the gold rush in the 1930s through Australian miners.
Australian soldiers stationed in the country during and after the World War II reintroduced the sport and in 1949 and the Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League was founded.
It quickly became a popular spectator sport.
During the 1960s, rugby league grew to be the clear top sport of the country.
The governing body for rugby league in PNG became members of the Rugby League International Federation in 1974 and the national team’s first ever Test match was a 40-12 home defeat by Great Britain a year later.
They first competed in the Rugby League World Cup in the 1985-89 competition.
A record attendance was established at the PNG Grand Final held in Lae on Sept 8, 2010, when the Goroka Lahanis defeated the Mendi Muruks 21-10 in front of a crowd that was believed to be 20,000-plus.
The PNG Hunters professional rugby league football club formed in 2013 to compete in the Queensland Rugby League’s Intrust Super Cup. The Hunters won the Intrust Super Cup in 2017.
In October 2015, PNG sealed a deal to co-host the 2017 Rugby League World Cup along with Australia and New Zealand.
The Kumuls were given their “own pool” hosting both their Group C fixtures against Wales and Ireland, plus an “inter-group” match against the US of Group D, in Port Moresby.
Then we have the annual Australian State of Origin matches are the most watched sporting event of the year.
It the second test on Sunday.
Australian rugby league players who have played in the annual (Australian) State of Origin clash, which is celebrated feverishly every year in PNG, are among the most well known personalities throughout the nation.
During the 2000 Rugby League World Cup an estimated audience of 2 million watched the Kumuls lose to the Welsh Dragons in the quarter finals in the early hours of the morning local time.
Despite this loss over 50,000 fans welcomed the team at Port Moresby Airport later that week.
A sold-out crowd always comes to watch the annual match between the Kumuls and the Australian Prime Minister’s XIII.
Sports remains one of PNG’s most cherished past times.
Some say it is one of the best and most effective tools for creating awareness and passing on messages.
It is also a binding agent in a country of several hundred different languages and cultures.
Good luck to all teams playing this weekend.