Into the increasing geopolitical contest of the Pacific will march a rugby league team. The $600m pledge from the Australian government to fund an NRL franchise based in Papua New Guinea was announced on Thursday by prime minister Anthony Albanese, standing alongside PNG prime minister James Marape and Australian Rugby League Commission chair Peter V’landys.
They were smiling at the announcement in Sydney, yet they were anything but in May when the deal – which had been formally discussed since 2022 – was close to falling over, just as the NRL expo “Magic Round” was beginning in Brisbane.
