Can PNG name a competitive side from UK players?

[Rene_Artois]

Here's the squad I've got. Add to it if anyone knows better:

Liam Horne

Edwin Ipape

Lachlan Lam

Nene McDonald 

Rhyse Martin 

Judah Rimbu

Dan Russell

Roderick Tai

Jeremiah Simbekan

Sylvester Namo

Kevin Appo

Emmanuel Waine

Jason Tali

Watson Boas

Edene Gebbie 

Wellington Albert

McKenzie Yei

Nixon Putt

 

Feel I'm missing a couple?

 

Edited December 5, 2024 by Rene_Artois
Added Nixon Putt

[warriors 95]

3 hours ago, Rene_Artois said:

Here's the squad I've got. Add to it if anyone knows better:

Liam Horne

Edwin Ipape

Lachlan Lam

Nene McDonald 

Rhyse Martin 

Judah Rimbu

Dan Russell

Roderick Tai

Jeremiah Simbekan

Sylvester Namo

Kevin Appo

Emmanuel Waine

Jason Tali

Watson Boas

Edene Gebbie 

Wellington Albert

McKenzie Yei

 

Feel I'm missing a couple?

 

Nixon putt

[warriors 95]

PNG are only going to get stronger and stronger with more players heading to super league and the NRL PNG franchise.

[The Future is League]

6 hours ago, Rene_Artois said:

Here's the squad I've got. Add to it if anyone knows better:

Liam Horne

Edwin Ipape

Lachlan Lam

Nene McDonald 

Rhyse Martin 

Judah Rimbu

Dan Russell

Roderick Tai

Jeremiah Simbekan

Sylvester Namo

Kevin Appo

Emmanuel Waine

Jason Tali

Watson Boas

Edene Gebbie 

Wellington Albert

McKenzie Yei

 

Feel I'm missing a couple?

 

Well that's the mid season test sorted out then.

[warriors 95]

1 hour ago, The Future is League said:

Well that's the mid season test sorted out then.

That’s actually not a bad shout.

love to see France v PNG as well.

[NRLandSL]

6 hours ago, warriors 95 said:

Nixon putt

Gone back to the Capras

[NRLandSL]

10 hours ago, Rene_Artois said:

Here's the squad I've got. Add to it if anyone knows better:

Liam Horne

Edwin Ipape

Lachlan Lam

Nene McDonald 

Rhyse Martin 

Judah Rimbu

Dan Russell

Roderick Tai

Jeremiah Simbekan

Sylvester Namo

Kevin Appo

Emmanuel Waine

Jason Tali

Watson Boas

Edene Gebbie 

Wellington Albert

McKenzie Yei

Nixon Putt

 

Feel I'm missing a couple?

 

Solo Wane, Junior Rop, Kuni Minga, Nickson Ugaia all play Elite 1 so add them to the list. Casey Dickson did play for Villeneuve last season as well, I think he might be back in PNG though. Certainly enough players to field a national team, could even entice some Australian based players to fly over.

Side could look like this

1-Nene MacDonald
2-Solo Wane
3-Rodrick Tai   
4-Dan Russell
5-Edene Gebbie
6-Judah Rimbu
7-Lachlan Lam 
8-Sylvester Namo
9-Edwin Ipape 
10-Wellington Albert
11-Rhyse Martin
12-Jeremiah Simbiken  
13-Liam Horne

14-Watson Boas
15-McKenzie Yei
16-Junior Rop
17-Emmanuel Waine

Really not even to many regulars missing. Could fly out Laybutt, Derby, Kapinias, Morea, Max or Mathias, as they are all QLD cup and would likely be allowed. 

Hopefully this does happen, PNG should play against France aswell, make it a little 2 game mid season “tour”, would be a fantastic idea and opportunity.

Edited December 5, 2024 by NRLandSL

[NRLandSL]

4 hours ago, The Future is League said:

Well that's the mid season test sorted out then.

You’d hope, the RFL aren’t particularly good at their jobs though so I would doubt it.

[The Future is League]

46 minutes ago, NRLandSL said:

You’d hope, the RFL aren’t particularly good at their jobs though so I would doubt it.

We can only hope and surely would attract more interest than the War of the Roses.

[gingerjon]

Thread just proves no one reads poor @Archie Gordon's posts.

Also, and more importantly, there is no space in the calendar this year for a mid season test.

[The Future is League]

7 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Thread just proves no one reads poor @Archie Gordon's posts.

Also, and more importantly, there is no space in the calendar this year for a mid season test.

Didn't we have one this year and in other years?

[Archie Gordon]

13 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Thread just proves no one reads poor @Archie Gordon's posts.

Also, and more importantly, there is no space in the calendar this year for a mid season test.

I guess the RFL might still announce a Tuesday night Test at Salford (every penny counts) with 2 weeks' notice.

[gingerjon]

34 minutes ago, The Future is League said:

Didn't we have one this year and in other years?

Yes. Next year's schedule has already been released and there is no gap, unlike in previous years.

[sam4731]

19 hours ago, The Future is League said:

Well that's the mid season test sorted out then.

And this would provide a bigger test than France? I highly doubt it.

[warriors 95]

6 minutes ago, sam4731 said:

And this would provide a bigger test than France? I highly doubt it.

I believe it would but England would still win comfortably for now.

[warriors 95]

15 hours ago, NRLandSL said:

Solo Wane, Junior Rop, Kuni Minga, Nickson Ugaia all play Elite 1 so add them to the list. Casey Dickson did play for Villeneuve last season as well, I think he might be back in PNG though. Certainly enough players to field a national team, could even entice some Australian based players to fly over.

Side could look like this

1-Nene MacDonald
2-Solo Wane
3-Rodrick Tai   
4-Dan Russell
5-Edene Gebbie
6-Judah Rimbu
7-Lachlan Lam 
8-Sylvester Namo
9-Edwin Ipape 
10-Wellington Albert
11-Rhyse Martin
12-Jeremiah Simbiken  
13-Liam Horne

14-Watson Boas
15-McKenzie Yei
16-Junior Rop
17-Emmanuel Waine

Really not even to many regulars missing. Could fly out Laybutt, Derby, Kapinias, Morea, Max or Mathias, as they are all QLD cup and would likely be allowed. 

Hopefully this does happen, PNG should play against France aswell, make it a little 2 game mid season “tour”, would be a fantastic idea and opportunity.

Could easily fly out 4-5 hunters players or other kumuls playing in the Queensland&NSW cup.

[warriors 95]

I believe the number of kumuls playing in super league will only increase year on year to something similar to the numbers of kiwis that played in the UK during the 80’s&90’s.

[arcticchris]

16 hours ago, NRLandSL said:

Solo Wane, Junior Rop, Kuni Minga, Nickson Ugaia all play Elite 1 so add them to the list. Casey Dickson did play for Villeneuve last season as well, I think he might be back in PNG though. Certainly enough players to field a national team, could even entice some Australian based players to fly over.

Side could look like this

1-Nene MacDonald
2-Solo Wane
3-Rodrick Tai   
4-Dan Russell
5-Edene Gebbie
6-Judah Rimbu
7-Lachlan Lam 
8-Sylvester Namo
9-Edwin Ipape 
10-Wellington Albert
11-Rhyse Martin
12-Jeremiah Simbiken  
13-Liam Horne

14-Watson Boas
15-McKenzie Yei
16-Junior Rop
17-Emmanuel Waine

Really not even to many regulars missing. Could fly out Laybutt, Derby, Kapinias, Morea, Max or Mathias, as they are all QLD cup and would likely be allowed. 

Hopefully this does happen, PNG should play against France aswell, make it a little 2 game mid season “tour”, would be a fantastic idea and opportunity.

That would make far too much sense for to ever happen in Rugby League 

[StandOffHalf]

It seems so obvious that it should happen, but English RL have decided that no teams get to play them mid-season in 2025.

Going the same route as the Aussies...

[NRLandSL]

7 hours ago, sam4731 said:

And this would provide a bigger test than France? I highly doubt it.

I Agree, scrapping the France test is probably one of the best decisions in rugby league in the past decade. Absolutely embarrassing decision, PNG are a little better than France but not by much. Should have 3 mid season matches ENG V FRA, PNG V FRA, PNG V ENG. But again this is far too logical for the RFL to make it happen.

[warriors 95]

5 hours ago, StandOffHalf said:

It seems so obvious that it should happen, but English RL have decided that no teams get to play them mid-season in 2025.

Going the same route as the Aussies...

I think as the numbers continue to grow it will eventually happen.

[Just Browny]

There's a lot of blaming the RFL here for a hypothetical. But surely it is also for the PNG RL to decide whether they are willing to award caps for a match where presumably they have players down under who they would normally select for a test match who wont be available. So it's also up to them whether they want this game.

To me that looks a credible enough squad of players but I don't see that they are stronger than France and I'd expect England to win by 40-50 points, I don't think we have made some exciting breakthrough. 

[NRLandSL]

9 minutes ago, Just Browny said:

There's a lot of blaming the RFL here for a hypothetical. But surely it is also for the PNG RL to decide whether they are willing to award caps for a match where presumably they have players down under who they would normally select for a test match who wont be available. So it's also up to them whether they want this game.

To me that looks a credible enough squad of players but I don't see that they are stronger than France and I'd expect England to win by 40-50 points, I don't think we have made some exciting breakthrough. 

Really only Alex Johnston, Justin Olam, Robert Derby, Jack De Belin and Jacob Alick who would be missing. Olam and Johnston didn’t even play this year.

[NRLandSL]

1 hour ago, warriors 95 said:

I think as the numbers continue to grow it will eventually happen.

Not really, after 2027 pretty much every good PNG player will join the NRL team. So really only 3 seasons for this fixture to happen. 

[Archie Gordon]

21 minutes ago, Just Browny said:

There's a lot of blaming the RFL here for a hypothetical. But surely it is also for the PNG RL to decide whether they are willing to award caps for a match where presumably they have players down under who they would normally select for a test match who wont be available. So it's also up to them whether they want this game.

To me that looks a credible enough squad of players but I don't see that they are stronger than France and I'd expect England to win by 40-50 points, I don't think we have made some exciting breakthrough. 

Someone organising this might bring over 5 or 6 more personnel from the NRL/QRL and it would be a very good Test side. But I'm pretty sure PNG hasn't been sounded out. 

And whilst it wouldn't provide the level of competition that, say, Samoa would, England would be without its NRL stars.

I actually do think an ENG-FRA-PNG tri-series could be an exciting breakthrough if it got a sponsor/broadcaster and some resources. Internationals get the game attention. We'd need not to worry about the size of the crowds or the scorelines, particularly.

What we're doing instead is fairly shameful IMO. But it's also typical - the idea that SL is the pinnacle of the game in England is entrenched.