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Australian Prime Minister's XIII 24 drew with Papua New Guinea 24.

Papua New Guinea achieved a sensational result in their annual clash with the Australian Prime Minister’s XIII – a 24 all draw with their NRL counterparts, and a 20 point comeback to boot!

Australia appeared to have the match in the keeping, ahead 20-0 at the break. They began the match with four tries in the first 20 minutes, to rack up their lead. Luke Douglas scored after only four minutes. Michael Monaghan scored in the corner, before Chris Lawrence picked up a double before halftime. Kurt Gidley managed two conversions.

Chip kicks caused a few headaches for Australia in the second half, as the heavens opened and a torrential downpour dampened proceedings. Halfback Keith Peters chipped ahead for Nigel Hukula to open the Kumul’s scoring, and shortly afterwards Menzie Yere chipped ahead for himself, regathering and scoring a scorching 20 metre try.

Australia hit back through Joel Monaghan’s second try, making the score 24-12. But Papua New Guinea had the final word, with two more converted tries. Keith Peters regathered his own bomb under the uprights to score, before Jessie Joe picked up a loose ball next to the posts, stepped around Australian defenders and scored. Gimapau Keimelo added his fourth conversion of the afternoon to level the scores with 20 minutes remaining.

Despite desperate attacking surges by both sides, that was the final score. Mark Gasnier went closest to breaking the deadlock, but a big hit by Keith Peters jolted the ball from his grasp.

The big crowd welcomed the result with open arms, with jubilant scenes after the match. It is cause for optimism for Papua New Guinea, with all but two of the players being selected from the local SP Cup.

What they said:

Keith Peters:
"This is for the people on the streets and especially rugby league followers in PNG, this one is for all of you. I can’t describe the feeling right now it’s just awesome to come from 20-0 at half time and draw the game, it just goes to show how much passion we have when we play for our country."

Adrian Lam:
"I thought we did not play well in the first 20 minutes which saw the Australians running in 20 unanswered points. But in the second half we managed to put ourselves together and score points which was a very outstanding effort from the guys, thumbs up to them."
"That's a great performance considering only three or four are fulltime players, the rest of them are part-time players. We defended a lot better in the second half, we realised what we were working on. Against Australia you need a bit of luck, I think we got that today. I still would have liked another point to win. It's a special day for PNG because we're the only country in the world where rugby league is the national sport."

Mal Meninga:
"It was sort of a game of four seasons there today. We got a lot of footy in the second half when the torrential rain came in. We went all right, it was pretty hard to fault our guys' effort, I thought their attitude was fantastic."
"You've got to be there to take advantage, the Kumuls kept on coming, they hang in there and don't quit. We put ourselves under a bit of pressure, we could have won the game up here but unfortunately we kept on knocking the ball away. But the crowd was great and it's done a world of good for rugby league."