Elliott Whitehead was left “devastated” the last time he faced Papua New Guinea so there’s no way he’s under-estimating England’s World Cup quarter-final opponents.
They face the powerful Kumuls at Wigan on Saturday with a semi-final against the winners of Tonga v Samoa up for grabs. England are big favourites as they cruised through their group stages with minimum fuss and have never lost against the Pacific Islands nation. However, Canberra captain Whitehead was part of a Great Britain side who suffered a shock 28-10 loss to Papua New Guinea at a hostile and humid Port Moresby in 2019.
Wayne Bennett’s Lions - who had already lost to New Zealand (twice) and Tonga - were 10-6 ahead at the break only to concede 22 unanswered points. Second-row Whitehead recalled: “That whole Great Britain tour wasn’t a success. And the boys that went on it were devastated by how we performed over there. The PNG loss definitely hurt. We’ll be looking to rectify that come Saturday.”
