Primed for action

By KEITH PUARIA
REST and recovery is all that is expected of the Papua New Guinea Prime Minister’s XIII today.
Adrian Lam yesterday gave his side a day off after the morning session, as well as today, to recover.
“It’s come to a point where they deserve to rest. We’ve been working them really hard in the last three days, and it is very important that they are given time to recover, before we come back and go hard at it again until match day,” Lam said.
“We’re halfway done, the first half of the week is gone and we have half a week left after the break. This is part of our plan and preparation.”
The break does come at a crucial time for the team, Lam pointing at the amount of work the side had gone through especially under the circumstances, and in the time frame that they had come together.
Defence will be key for Lam when the side returns to the paddock tomorrow morning, and then the session later that afternoon.
“We want to finish the week off in defence importantly, and understand as much as possible how we want to defend against Australia.”
The only other session after Friday is the captains run on Saturday afternoon, which is traditionally the final team run before the match.
Lam admitted that he had planned to play Australia according to the team that were announced originally, and by the way coach Mal Meninga would have planned accordingly.
The late withdrawals and changes however, has thrown in the ‘if’, and would have been a lot of guesswork.
“I’d rather worry about how we want to play, and just being able to control the way we play.
The Australian side arrived in Cairns today, and will go through their paces together, before they arrive in Port Moresby tomorrow.