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.”
He is one of five survivors from that side along with fellow pack members Tom Burgess, Chris Hill, John Bateman and Luke Thompson. With NRL top try-scorer Alex Johnston, big-hitting Melbourne centre Justin Olam and Championship player of the year Edwin Ipape, Papua New Guinea have plenty of threats. They secured their last-eight spot with Monday’s 36-0 rout of Wales having already swept past Cook Islands 32-16 and given hotly-tipped Tonga a fierce examination before narrowly losing 24-18.
Whitehead, 33, admitted: “They are going to be a good test for us. They’ve shown that in the World Cup already. They’ve good players and it’ll be a tough test. But we’ve taken the right steps. We’ve had a tough group and got through that. We’re just building now and it’ll be a different game this weekend. It’s knockout rugby. But I’m sure we’ll be confident. We’re sure we can go to Wigan and get the job done.”
His experience will be vital as they bid to make sure they don’t become the Kumuls’ latest victims. The ex-Bradford and Catalans forward, a beaten World Cup finalist in 2017, was rested for Saturday’s 94-4 rout of Greece. Whitehead, 33, said: “You always want to be out there but it was nice to get a little rest as well.
“Hopefully I’ll be back in on Saturday and freshened up. Everyone comes in and does their job with England, even the young kids. It makes it very simple and a lot easier. Waney has a good group of boys here. We have experience but also some great youth. It’s gelling well together now and hopefully we can keep getting stronger.”
