Saturday, 17^th October, sees Papua New Guinea and Lebanon go head-to-head in Port Moresby, in their opening group stage game in the 2026 IRL Men’s Rugby League World Cup (2:25pm KO local time).

The PNG Kumuls are led by the evergreen Rhyse Martin at his third World Cup, while centre Nene MacDonald takes part in his fourth World Cup.

Cowboys speedsters Zac Laybutt and Rob Derby will look to light it up out wide while Eels forwards Luca Moretti makes his Kumuls debut, having represented Italy in 2022.

NRL stars Jacob Kiraz, Jason Saab, Alex Twal and Jordan Samrani will lead the Cedars into battle against the Kumuls in Port Moresby. Twal captains the side at his second World Cup after playing in 2017, while Kiraz represented Lebanon at the 2022 World Cup.

Eels flyer Jordan Samrani and Wests Tigers forward Tony Sukkar make their Test debuts. Bulldogs youngster Alex Conti will steer the ship from halfback in the absence of Mitch Moses, who is representing Australia.

Papua New Guinea (squad): Morea MOREA, Robert DERBY, Zac LAYBUTT, Dudley DOTOI, Gairo VORO, Bailey Biondi-Odo, Valentine RICHARD, Luca MORETTI, Nixon PUTT, Jack DE BELIN, Finley GLARE, Liam HORNE, Epel KAPINIAS, Sylvester NAMO, Rodrick TAI, Sanny WABO, Robert MATHIAS, Khaiya WAIEMBI, Zev JOHN

Lebanon (squad): Tony Jr FRANCIS, Michael GABRAEL, Jason SAAB, Khaled RAJAB, Alex CONTI, Jaxson RAHME, Yehya AYACHE, Tony SUKKAR, Moustafa DIRANI, Mikael IBRAHIM, Joseph NOHRA, Tupou FRANCIS, Mohamed ALAMEDDINE, Cameron KANAAN