Papua New Guinea stunned the bookmakers and thrilled their supporters by upsetting the highly-fancied Fiji side 26-14 to edge clear of their Pacific cousins in head-to-head meetings. The Kumuls now lead Fiji 2-1 in their fledgling international careers. Jarryd Hayne played at halfback for Fiji for the first time and kept PNG pegged back with good, tactical kicking early, but his team was starved of possession with loose play in possession. The Parramatta centre did manage to roll a grubber into the north-western corner in the 53rd minute for Marcelo Montoya to ground. But the 2017 World Cup semi-finalists were not at their creative best, limiting the number of offloads the Fijians are usually famous for and making too many handling errors. In contrast to the lack of direction by the Fiji halves, PNG's five-eighth Lachlan Lam – son of Sydney Roosters and Queensland Origin legend Adrian Lam – continually asked questions with his passing and kicking games. PNG had just five players with NRL experience in their line-up compared with 10 for Fiji. But that didn't stop the Kumuls racing to a 12-0 lead after 17 minutes, through tries to winger Junior Rau and prop Luke Page. Rau was on debut for PNG after being called into the side when Dragons winger Nene Macdonald was ruled out through injury (shoulder). A penalty for Eloni Vunakece hitting PNG kicker Watson Boas late pushed the score to 14-0. Rau collected his second in the 36th minute off a Justin Olam flick pass, and then Olam raced 45 metres, off a James Segeyaro pass, to score under the posts in the 39th. The propelled the Kumuls to a 26-4 half-time lead – four tries to one. The Fijians finally got on the scoreboard in the 32nd minute when centre Tyrone Phillips stepped off his right foot, outfoxing two defenders, to cross. The first-half completion rate told the story of lopsided possession. Fiji were 10 from 14 sets, while PNG not only enjoyed seven more sets but completed at 86% (18 from 21). Fiji had two tries disallowed in the first 10 minutes of the second-half, which didn't help their spirits, with Melbourne Storm winger Suliasi Vunivalu scoring a consolation try with 12 minutes remaining. -NRL.COM
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Papua New Guinea Kumuls Breaking News & Match Reports and highligntsRugby League News by CategoryBringing all the latest rugby league news in PNG. If you want to contribute to this site with articles relating to sports please contact us here World CupPM'S XIIIDowner Rugby League 9s World Cup- PNG Kumuls 0 Australia 26
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2019 - Fiji Bati 22 PNG Kumuls 20 2019 - PNG Kumls 6 Samoa 24 2018 - PNG Kumuls 26 Fiji Bati 14 2017 - PNG Kumuls 32 Cook Islands 22 2016 - PNG Kumuls 24 Fiji Bati 22 2015- Fiji Bati 22 PNG Kumuls 22 World Cup Results
Round 1 : PNG Kumuls 50 Wales 6 Round 2: PNG Kumuls 14 Ireland 6 Round 3 PNG Kumuls 64 USA 0 Quarter Finals : PNG Kumuls 6 England 36
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