Ahead of their Women’s Rugby League World Cup match against Australia, the PNG Santos Orchids Captain Elsie Albert said the girls are reallly excited and nervous at the same time, as this would be their first ever semi-final world cup match on Tuesday 15th at 3am PNG time, in York.
“We’re pretty much excited because were going up against Australia in the semi-finals, says Albert.”
As one of the NRLW based players, Elsie has encouraged her team mates to stay focus as they approach their semi-final match against Australia’s Jillaroos during one off their training sessions.
“The best thing I’d say to them is that the pressure is on the Aussie side because they’re the world champs and going into the semis, everyone is expecting us to loose, so going in as the ‘Under Dogs’, we just have to get in there and play the best we can and keep our heads up, says Albert.”
Santos PNG Orchids Center Belinda Gwasamun said, this is a very big achievement for the PNG ladies compared to the last world cup where the team did not win any of their games and we are happy to have won 2 of our matches and are now into the semis.
Gwasamun said, one of the things she learnt from their match against England was communication on field.
“We need to communicate properly especially when the game is brought back on our defense line, other than that, I am really excited because we have come this far, says Gwasamun”
Gwasamun also thanked PNG as a whole for the support. “Because of your support, we have made it this far. Even though we lost our last game, we can still feel the energy and support from miles away and we are very happy for that”.