Papua New Guinea 50–6 Wales — Group C, 2017 Rugby League World Cup
28 Oct 2017 · National Football Stadium, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea · Attendance: 14,800
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Group C, 2017 Rugby League World Cup: Papua New Guinea 50–6 Wales, at National Football Stadium, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on 28 Oct 2017.
Scorers
| Papua New Guinea | Tries: Mead (3); Martin (2); Macdonald; Albert; Ottio; Aiton; Olam Goals: Martin (5/8); A. Boas (0/2) |
| Wales | Tries: Grace Goals: Davies (1/1) |
Teams
| Papua New Guinea | Wales | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | David Mead (c) | Fullback | Elliot Kear | 1 |
| 2 | Justin Olam | Wing | Rhys Williams | 2 |
| 3 | Kato Ottio | Centre | Michael Channing | 3 |
| 4 | Nene Macdonald | Centre | Andrew Gay | 4 |
| 5 | Garry Lo | Wing | Regan Grace | 5 |
| 6 | Ase Boas | Stand off/Five eighth | Courtney Davies | 6 |
| 7 | Watson Boas | Scrum half/Half back | Matt Seamark | 7 |
| 8 | Stanton Albert | Prop forward | Craig Kopczak (c) | 8 |
| 9 | Wartovo Puara | Hooker | Steve Parry | 9 |
| 10 | Luke Page | Prop forward | Philip Joseph | 10 |
| 11 | Rhyse Martin | Second row | Rhodri Lloyd | 11 |
| 12 | Willie Minoga — pre-match team had Rod Griffin here | Second row | Chester Butler — pre-match team had Ben Morris here | 12 |
| 13 | Paul Aiton | Loose forward/Lock forward | Morgan Knowles | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 14 | Kurt Baptiste | Matty Fozard | 14 | |
| 15 | Wellington Albert | Sam Hopkins | 15 | |
| 16 | James Segeyaro | Ben Evans | 16 | |
| 17 | Enock Maki | Ben Morris — number unresolved | Bench | |
| Michael Marum | Coach | John Kear | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Ben Cummins (Australia) |
| Touch judges | David Munro — single-sourced, Scott Mikalauskas — single-sourced |
| Player of the match | Not confirmed to Tier-1 standard |
Match report
Papua New Guinea opened Group C with a 50-6 rout of Wales in front of a raucous home crowd at Port Moresby, David Mead scoring a hat-trick. Sources disagree on part of each side's back row between the pre-match named teams and the actual matchday XIII (Wellington Albert, a confirmed PNG try scorer, does not appear in the pre-match squad list) — the lineup shown here follows the post-match record.
Previous World Cup meetings
- 2000 Rugby League World Cup (Quarter-final): Wales 22–8 Papua New Guinea
- 2021 Rugby League World Cup (Group D): Papua New Guinea 36–0 Wales
Sources
- 2017 Rugby League World Cup final — Wikipedia
- Rugby League World Cup: Australia beat England 6-0 to retain trophy — BBC Sport
- Famous Fixtures: Australia v England | 2017 Rugby League World Cup Final — rugby-league.com
- Australia 6-0 England: Kangaroos win Rugby League World Cup — Sky Sports
- 2017 Rugby League World Cup Final Team Lists & Officials — League Unlimited
- 2017 Rugby League World Cup — Wikipedia (full group/knockout results)