France 9 PNG 8: Home support fails to bring victory for PNG

France rolled up their sleeves and defied a partisan East Hull crowd to win their World Cup Group B opener with Papua New Guinea 9-8 at Craven Park, but they were not without their fair share of good fortune in doing so.
Papa New Guinea's Neville Costigan (left) is tackled by France's Jamal Fakir during the 2013 World Cup match at Craven Park, Hull. (Anna Gowthorpe/PA Wire)Papa New Guinea's Neville Costigan (left) is tackled by France's Jamal Fakir during the 2013 World Cup match at Craven Park, Hull. (Anna Gowthorpe/PA Wire)
Papa New Guinea's Neville Costigan (left) is tackled by France's Jamal Fakir during the 2013 World Cup match at Craven Park, Hull. (Anna Gowthorpe/PA Wire)

Tackling some tough elements by the Humber and faced with a PNG side considered their own by the Hull fans, Richard Agar’s men will hardly look back on this as their finest performance, but at least know they got the job done, however they did it.

Their luck came in the shape of the PNG full-back David Mead who missed two conversions and a 79th-minute penalty which meant that William Barthau’s 64th-minute drop goal proved to be the match-winner. The fact that he felt moved to take it on was evidence of how formidable an obstacle PNG had been.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

With their deep-rooted links to Hull KR because of former players Makali Aizue and in particular Stanley Gene, the Kumuls were afforded hero status from the crowd of 7,481 who for a long time had plenty to cheer about.

Thrilling Port Moresby winger Josiah Abavu had put them ahead early in the second half but France, with the relentless accuracy of stand-off Thomas Bosc and the opportunism of Barthau, found a way to get the points and banish memories of their surprise warm-up loss to America.

Abavu had already been dumped in touch when they scored after six minutes when Bosc, one of 15 Catalan players in the matchday squad, picked up possession six yards out and turned a gap into a four-pointer, with his subsequent conversion giving France the best possible start.

PNG remained enthusiastic – perhaps too much so in the case of Israel Eliab who wiped out Barthau off the ball – but once they found some composure they started to impress.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Paul Aiton went close from dummy-half and they scored with 17 minutes gone, albeit in fortuitous circumstances.

Ray Thompson’s pass to the right hit the oncoming Eliab in the face but, rather than swallow up the loose ball, Freddie Vaccari dropped it and Nene MacDonald was on hand to dot down.

Mead failed with the goal leaving France ahead, but PNG were on the front foot now and it took a fine tackle from full-back Clint Greenshields to dump Abavu in touch once more as he went for the corner.

France were clearly struggling but would have lead at the break were it not for a double-movement which took Theo Fages over the line, and that came home to roost three minutes after the break as PNG hit the front.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The celebrations which followed Thompson and Ase Boas’ winning of the ball in a tackle were only bettered by those which occurred as Abavu took in Menzie Yere’s pass to cash-in and overlap.

Bosc levelled the scores with a penalty, ignoring the boos of the fans who felt it was a negative move. The cat calls continued when Barthau caught PNG napping to split the posts with a 40-yard drop goal.

Related topics: