SCOTLAND 20 PAPUA NEW GUINEA 38 20th October 2013, 9:26 SCOTLAND 20 PAPUA NEW GUINEA 38 Saturday 19 October 2013 Gavin Willacy at Big Fellas Stadium, Featherstone Scotland got everything they wanted from their only pre-World Cup warm-up - apart from a win. Papua New Guinea took advantage of the many changes Scotland made throughout the game and scored two late tries to turn an entertaining and close encounter into an apparently comfortable victory. It was anything but. It was a rare chance to see international rugby league on Post Office Road, with the exotic Kumuls brightening up a dull but very mild afternoon. Led by Aussie league legend Mal Meninga and former Wigan half-back Adrian Lam, PNG looked like they will give France – shocked last night by the USA – and Samoa a run for their money behind Group B favourites New Zealand. Scotland got off to the perfect start: PNG sent the kick off out of the in-goal on the full and from the resultant penalty, Scotland built through Oli Wilkes before Danny Brough’s cut-out pass sent Brett Carter sliding over on the right within seconds of the game commencing. Brough strangely so miskicked the conversion attempt that it didn’t even reach the posts. The Kumuls bounced back on seven minutes when Enoch Maki took Paul Aiton’s short pass and spun over the line from close range. PNG then had the better of field position and matched Scotland for set completion during a raft of Bravehearts substitutions. But Scotland regained the lead when Brough’s speculative jabbed cross-field kick on the last was completely missed by Sheffield centre Menzie Yere, enabling Ben Hellewell, on his home ground, to stroll over. Brough kicked the goal for a 10-6 lead on 22 minutes. Brough showed a rare glimpse of fallibility when he fumbled a simple pass following a fine break by Alex Hurst and there were ironic cheers when his next kick went straight to a man in yellow and red. Minutes later Josiah Abavu took a suspiciously-forward-looking pass and raced through the broken field to kick through superbly for Sydney Roosters’ youngster Nene Macdonald to touch down. Brough was replaced by Workington youngster Callum Phillips after 34 minutes in a pre-arranged move, and Luke Douglas, who only arrived in the country on Thursday from Australia, played 17 first half minutes as McCormack got 20 of his players on the pitch before the break. Seconds before the bell, Whitehaven’s Jessie Joe Nandye – aka Parker – broke through three tacklers to feed Wellington Albert by the posts. Incredibly, Mead missed the kick, leaving the Kumuls 16-10 up. PNG repeated the feat within a minute of the restart, a kick through bouncing off Josh Barlow’s chest, Nandye reacted superbly to pick up and send Richard Kambo racing over the line. Mead struck the kick conversion again.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 04:02:10 +0000
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