England edge towards World Cup exit despite PNG win
What happened
England beat Papua New Guinea 34-12 in Wollongong but look set to exit the Rugby League World Cup at the group stage, according to Sky Sports.
They needed to win by 70 points or more to pass Samoa on points difference.
England led 22-0 after 22 minutes, but errors and penalties let Papua New Guinea back into the game, the BBC reported.
The BBC counted 21 errors and a 57% completion rate for England.
England can now reach the semi-finals only if Tonga beat Samoa by more than 46 points, according to the BBC.
The Guardian called that outcome unlikely, noting Tonga's biggest win over Samoa is 32 points.
“I reckon we were good in the first 20, and then the wheels kind of fell off.”
Sky Sports
Summary written by AI from 3 independent sources (Sky Sports, BBC, Guardian) and checked automatically against them for copied text and numbers that are not in the sources. How we work
Open on the live globe →Who reported it
- 2026-10-30 10:45 UTCSky Sports · skysports.com ↗
- 2026-10-30 11:17 UTCBBC · bbc.co.uk ↗
- 2026-10-30 11:32 UTCGuardian · theguardian.com ↗
- 2026-11-01 03:33 UTCABC · abc.net.au ↗
- 2026-11-01 07:47 UTCRNZ Pacific · rnz.co.nz ↗
- 2026-11-01 11:04 UTCRNZ · rnz.co.nz ↗