The Joy of Rugby by Steven Gauge

Author:Steven Gauge
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Summersdale Publishers Ltd
Published: 2014-07-16T00:00:00+00:00

You can go to the end of time, the last World Cup in the history of mankind and the All Blacks will be favourites for it.

And yet they have, so far, only captured the top prize twice.

Papua New Guinea

When Australia took over administering Papua New Guinea after World War Two, the particular Australians that travelled there happened to take rugby league rather than union with them. By the 1960s the game had completely taken hold of the nation. With a population of just seven million, Papua New Guinea is the only nation to declare rugby league as its national sport. Matches in Papua New Guinea are a huge event and spectators have been known to walk for days in full tribal dress to attend fixtures.

There are 600 different languages spoken in Papua New Guinea and tribal disputes can occasionally make team management tricky. During one tour, the organisers had to work hard to keep the news from two players that their respective tribes had gone to war.

Close links have been formed between Papua New Guinea and the English rugby league side Hull Kingston Rovers. In 1996 Hull KR signed Papua New Guinean star John Okul and his friend Stanley Gene. Gene went on to coach at the Hull KR academy and Gateshead Thunder, as well as serving as head coach for his nation in 2010. There is a Facebook page linking supporters from Hull KR and those from Papua New Guinea, with supporters swapping team kit and news about their players through the social-media site.

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