Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Scotland to play Papua New Guinea

SAM VILLER

  Scotland will play Papua New Guinea on Saturday 19 September at Big Fellas Stadium, Featherstone, in a full international as a warm-up ahead of the Rugby League World Cup.
It will be Scotland's only match this year before their RLWC2013 campaign kicks off against Tonga at Workington on Tuesday 29 October.
Papua New Guinea are in Group B at the World Cup along with New Zealand, Samoa and France. With Super League players such as prop Jason Chan from League Leaders Huddersfield, Wakefield hooker Paul Aiton, along with Championship players Jessie Joe Parker of Whitehaven, former Hull KR forward Makali Aizue now with Dewsbury Rams and Sheffield's Menzie Yere, PNG are contenders for a quarter-final place.
"We're delighted to secure the game against PNG," said Scotland coach Steve McCormack. "We've been working on it for weeks and all the pieces have fallen into place thanks to the tremendous efforts of the two countries' boards and Featherstone Rovers, who have been fantastic in making this happen. It should be a tremendous game and the perfect preparation for us ahead of the Tonga game."
Scotland will go into camp a couple of days before the PNG clash, having trained several times a week for the previous six weeks. They will depart for their RLWC2013 base at Workington immediately after the PNG game (kick off time to be confirmed).
Kumuls general manager Matthew Matusch had this to say: "PNG are excited by the prospect of playing their League Brothers from the far north. We are really looking forward to this opportunity as this is the first time, to our knowledge, that Papua New Guinea and Scotland have played each other.
"We are aware that we will be in for a good strong clash with the Bravehearts. Scotland looks as though they have a very good line up with the calibre of players which they have at their disposal. It should be a great match with two Warrior Nations coming together! We're hoping for a nice warm afternoon!"

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