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PNG Kumuls need the best players for Rugby League World Cup

THE Kumuls should make the of quarter-finals at October’s Rugby League World Cup.
That is the least we should be aiming for as the top three in our pool (B) advance to the next stage of the tournament.
To do it we have to have our best side on the paddock. 
Not the best side in PNG, but the best players we have playing in whatever high level competition in Australia and England.
That means Neville Costigan, David Mead, James Segeyaro, Ray Thompson, Paul Aiton, Ryan Tongia, Jason Chan, Menzie Yere and Jessie Joe Parker must all be considered if fit.
In 2010, Mead was reported in the Australian media as being disillusioned with the state of the PNG Rugby League and said he was not too sure he wanted to play for the Kumuls again.
Costigan said the same things earlier and both men were villified by sections of PNG sports fans as being unpatriotic and disrespectful.
That was a long time ago. Today, both men who proudly wore the Kumul jumper at the 2008 World Cup, must be picked again.
Whatever flaws they have, their quality as players cannot be denied.
We need that kind of experience and talent in our side heading to a World Cup.
We dare say that a team without Costigan and Mead is certainly not as good as if these two names were in the starting 17. 
The World Cup comes around once every four years, albeit in rugby league the last one was five years ago, so we cannot afford to dredge up what a young professional footballer may have said years ago and hold it against him.
It also helps that neither is likley to play representative football for Queensland or Australia so it makes sense to include them in the final squad for the October.
We would be silly not to and they would definitely repay the gesture.
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