Following a group stage of ups, downs and an overwhelming sense of room for improvement, the return of Sam Burgess for Sunday’s World Cup quarter-final against Papua New Guinea offers England belief that perhaps the best is yet to come: and how they will need it.
Burgess’s return from the knee injury suffered against Australia happily coincides with the beginning of the knockout stage and while the quarter-finals were straightforward for England to negotiate four years ago against France, the story could be markedly different in Melbourne.
To suggest rugby league is a way of life in Papua New Guinea would be an understatement. The only nation that has rugby league as its undisputed national sport, its passion for the game is emphasised by the fact well over a quarter of the population will be glued to TV sets on Sunday .
There are stories of locals walking miles to play and fans scaling mountains to see their heroes live. In PNG, rugby league is not only a game, it is everything – and how thankful England will be that they are playing them in Melbourne, not the tropical climate of Port Moresby.
The three sellout fixtures in the PNG capital during the group stage have created the most colour and perhaps the biggest positives for a tournament which, in certain areas of Australia, has struggled to command mainstream attention. In PNG the World Cup is all people are talking about.
There is a possibility the world may see much more of PNG in the coming years whatever happens against Wayne Bennett’s side. The long-term goal is a side competing in Australia’s elite competition, the NRL. Its strongest domestic side, the PNG Hunters, played in the second-tier Queensland Cup this year as a test of their ambitions – and they won the competition.
“PNG are unbeaten in the World Cup so far and full of confidence,” the England wing Jermaine McGillvary said. “You’re going to cop a few bruises against them when you play; they’ve always been physical but now they’ve got some top-level experience and some real talent.”
England players have never needed to burrow through jungle to get to training as youngsters but just as PNG have caught the eye throughout the tournament on and off the field, so has McGillvary – with his story also worth not neglecting.
The 29-year-old did not spend his teenage years playing academy rugby before being promoted to Huddersfield’s first-team; he spent his evenings and weekends working in a warehouse.
Rugby league was not on his radar until his friend and now Huddersfield team-mate Leroy Cudjoe convinced him to give it a go. Huddersfield signed him and, after a couple of loan spells in the lower leagues, McGillvary now finds himself a try-scoring sensation for club and country.
“I’ve come a long way,” he said. “A lot of people have helped me to reap the rewards but I’ve made a lot of sacrifices, too. I guess I’ve seen those sacrifices bear fruit in the last few years.”
McGillvary’s tournament was in doubt following a biting allegation by the Lebanon captain, Robbie Farah. He was acquitted after only three minutes at a hearing last week, leaving the focus to be on his performances – which have attracted admirers aplenty in Australia.
Is he interested in the NRL? “It’s something I may look at but it’s not really entered my mind before,” he said. “I’m happy at Huddersfield and I’ve never looked to try to get out. There’s never been any interest.”
Another strong performance to help England into the semi-finals and there may be more people taking notice of McGillvary.
World Cup quarter-final: England Widdop; McGillvary, Watkins, Bateman, Hall; Brown, Gale; Hill, Hodgson, Graham, S Burgess, Whitehead, O’Loughlin. Interchange Walmsley, T Burgess, Currie, Roby.
Papua New Guinea Mead; Olam, Ottio, MacDonald, Lo; A Boas, W Boas; Meninga, Segeyaro, Page, Martin, Minoga, Aiton. Interchange Baptiste, Amean, Albert, Griffin.
Fiji stun Kiwis in World Cup quarter-final
New Zealand are out of the World Cup after Fiji edged a try-less game to book a semi-final date with Australia. The Kiwis, finalists in the last three tournaments, looked a shadow of their former selves and Fiji took advantage to claim a 4-2 victory in an error-strewn first meeting between the sides.
Fiji dominated the first half in Wellington but were too slow and laboured to break the Kiwis down as they failed to add to Apisai Koroisau’s penalty. The Bati could not make the most of Jordan Rapana’s sin-binning and only held a slender advantage heading into the closing stages after Shaun Johnson and Taane Milne exchanged two-pointers. But that proved to be enough as they held on to reach a third successive semi-final.
New Zealand, who lost star forward Jason Taumalolo to Tonga and were without Jesse Bromwich and Kevin Proctor for disciplinary reasons, made a bright start to the tournament but Tonga knocked the stuffing out of the 2008 champions and Fiji finished them off.
No side scored more points than Fiji in the group stage and they thought they had taken a fifth-minute lead through Brayden Williame, only for replays to show the Catalans Dragons player had failed to ground the ball.
New Zealand had made a shaky start following their shock defeat by Tonga and they were relieved to be just 2-0 down after 20 minutes with Fiji only having Koroisau’s penalty to show for their early dominance. The Kiwis lost back-rower Joseph Tapine to injury to cap off a miserable first 40 minutes but they were still well in the game at half-time.
Johnson got New Zealand on the board after Fiji were penalised for dissent but the Kiwis were immediately on the back foot again after Rapana was sent to the bin for a professional foul. New Zealand came through the 10-minute period unscathed after Williame had a try ruled out for a double movement. But any hopes they would build on that effort were dashed as Milne accepted the offer of two points after more Kiwi indiscipline.
New Zealand were gifted late field position after Kevin Naiqama lost the ball on his own 40-metre mark but Fiji knew the game was won when Brad Takairangi failed to reach Rapana’s kick. Press Association
Tonga cling on to edge out Lebanon
Tonga survived an almighty scare to reach their first World Cup semi-final with a tense 24-22 win over Lebanon.
The Pacific Islanders were a shadow of the side that beat New Zealand in their previous game and were grateful for a contentious decision by English video referee Ben Thaler to disallow a Lebanese try for their victory.
The Cedars fought back from 16-6 down to get within six points by half-time and thought they had drawn level when centre Adam Doueihi went over on 45 minutes only to be denied by an obstruction ruling that looked harsh. Press Association
