I'd counter that and say PNG are miles ahead of where they were 4 years ago and will be a top 6 side again in 2021 in the cold....they will tire against England and lose, but they are far better than last time out

So are England than when they played PNG under Tony Smith. That was probably an all-time low in terms of quality of players in the squad, particularly threequarters. Whilst they have improved, most of the PNG team play Qld Cup, and the Hunters got destroyed by Penrith in the interstate final.

Put it this way, I think Fiji would smash PNG out of sight - they play a similar game but are bigger and faster and Hayne is a better half than any PNG option. Tonga, NZ and Australia would similarly wipe them out. Samoa could too if they played to their strengths in the forwards, and I'd fancy Lebanon as well given the quality of their defence.

I love watching PNG play and their style, and I think they will continue to improve, but they really shouldn't do more than ruffle England a bit. If England play a ruthless professional style they should win by plenty.

PNG should lose by plenty, but I can't help thinking Michael Marum has something up his sleeve still.
He has had a month long camp with heaps of players with NRL experience and lots of skill, and he has been able to have 3 games where he got to try different players in different positions.
PNG are the only side who haven't spent a day travelling and half the squad have been sleeping in their own beds every night.
They have had a perfect month long buildup to this game except for suffering a fair few injuries.
England have been flying across time zones and sleeping in a different bed every second night, while PNG have had a month long training camp in their own backyards.

The Hunters were in Sydney for the first time ever...playing an NRL 2nd team line up with 8 players having 1st team games this year. PNG Hunters will win the interstate withing 2 more seasons....

You clearly didn't see the Hunters towards the end of the season. The Qld Cup teams had no answers to them early in the year, but by the end of the season had worked out how to play them - basically smash up the middle and kick to the corners for 20 minutes, followed by throwing the ball around. They should have lost the Qld Cup final, but managed to just hang on. Against Penrith they were beaten out of sight.

PNG have a huge number of errors in them and often fail to reach the end of a set with anything like a kick. For some reason everyone seems to ignore the fact that Ireland, a team with really very few quality players, stayed with them right until the end, even in the heat in Port Moresby. They did that by playing a simple attacking game, using their strengths in the forwards, and not missing tackles. The USA and Wales were by far the worst teams in the WC - really not great examples to show how good or bad PNG are.

Like I say, I love their style but any team with serious ambitions to winning the WC ought to smash them out of sight. If England make their tackles and don't drop the ball all over the field they should win by a fair margin. If we don't that says a lot more about England's lack of quality than how good PNG are. Can you honestly imagine any of the other quarter-finalists being beaten by PNG except possibly Lebanon?

Yes, Samoa for starters. Samoa could only draw with a weakened Scottish team.

Really? Ireland should have beaten them there and England are a far better team than them. PNG have come along nicely but England should be a step too far even if they played at home, plus England are a better team than they were in 2008.
Like others have said and I agree with, they make far too many errors and can be indisciplined. So for me England will capitalise on those, like an experienced full time Pro outfit should do. With Sam back and no constantly switching of combinations like in the last game, especially the spine of the team, I think we'll really step up at this stage of the comp and have a goood game.

GB/England have always made beating 'lesser' teams hard work. Why I don't know. However they are infinitely superior in every facet of the game than PNG. As I say they will make hard work of it but they will do it easily in the end.

Tonga are a much harder proposition but true to the British nature the more they look like the possible underdog the better they will play. I think they will be pumped to play Tonga purely because they will be written off in some quarters.

That said I don't really care how pedestrian England are until the final, just grind out the wins if they can. England only need one maybe two good games and they are word champions.

My team Ireland did great, how can you win two and not get through - gutted!

If England lose in the SF to Tonga then I'm giving up watching RL forever. We've lost three SF's to NZ but this time have managed to avoid having to play them in a SF in their own back yard. If we screw up against Tonga and don't get to the final, I'm done with it all!

Part England's doing and I'd suggest part because lesser teams see England as their best chance to beat one of the big 3 so go in with a different confidence than against Australia for example.

That’s what I was thinking!

Let’s hope so!

Bloody stupid isn’t it? Samoa are through and they have been dreadful!

It should have been:
Top 2 in Groups A+B go through automatically
Top team in Groups C+D go through automatically
Best two next places teams go through

Which would have seen 1/4 Finals of:
Australia v Italy
Tonga v Ireland
PNG v England
Fiji v New Zealand

When the top team wins 3