Papua New Guinea 23–20 France — Group C, 2000 Rugby League World Cup
28 Oct 2000 · Charlety Stadium, Paris, France · Attendance: 7,498
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Group C, 2000 Rugby League World Cup: Papua New Guinea 23–20 France, at Charlety Stadium, Paris, France on 28 Oct 2000.
Scorers
| Papua New Guinea | Tries: Bai; Buko; Krewanty; Lam Goals: Wilshere/Buko (3 combined) — exact individual split not confirmed in sources found Drop goals: Lam (1) |
| France | Tries: Hechiche (2); — further try/tries (approx. 8 points) not identified in any source found Goals: Banquet (2) |
Teams
| Papua New Guinea | France | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | David Buko | Fullback | Frederic Banquet | 1 |
| 2 | John Wilshere | Wing | Yacine Dekkiche | 2 |
| 3 | Eddie Aila | Centre | Jean-Emmanuel Cassin | 3 |
| 4 | Alfred Songoro | Centre | Arnaud Dulac | 4 |
| 5 | Marcus Bai | Wing | Patrice Benausse | 5 |
| 6 | Stanley Gene | Stand off/Five eighth | Laurent Frayssinous | 6 |
| 7 | Adrian Lam (c) | Scrum half/Half back | Fabien Devecchi (c) | 7 |
| 8 | Raymond Karl | Prop forward | Rachid Hechiche | 8 |
| 9 | Michael Marum | Hooker | Vincent Wulf | 9 |
| 10 | Lucas Solbat | Prop forward | Frederic Teixido | 10 |
| 11 | Duncan Na'awi | Second row | Jérôme Guisset | 11 |
| 12 | Bruce Mamando | Second row | Gael Tallec | 12 |
| 13 | Tom O'Reilly | Loose forward/Lock forward | Pascal Jampy | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| Interchange | Mark Mom | Abderazak El Khalouki | Interchange | |
| Interchange | Alex Krewanty | Laurent Carrasco | Interchange | |
| Interchange | Andrew Norman | Jason Sands | Interchange | |
| Interchange | Michael Mondo | David Despin | Interchange | |
| Bob Bennett — single-sourced | Coach | Gilles Dumas — single-sourced | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Steve Ganson (St Helens) — single-sourced |
| Touch judges | Not identified in sources found |
| Player of the match | Not identified in sources found |
Match report
Papua New Guinea came from 16-0 down at half-time to beat France 23-20 in the tournament's Paris double-header opener at Stade Charléty. Adrian Lam's field goal proved decisive. France's full scoring detail could not be fully reconciled: two tries and two goals confirmed in sources found total 12 points, eight short of France's 20 — at least one further France try or scoring passage is not identified in any source found, and is shown honestly as a gap rather than invented.
Previous World Cup meetings
- 1985–1988 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): France 21–4 Papua New Guinea
- 1989–1992 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): Papua New Guinea 18–20 France
- 1989–1992 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): France 28–14 Papua New Guinea
- 2013 Rugby League World Cup (Group B): Papua New Guinea 8–9 France