Stanley Gene believes the future is bright for Papua New Guinea after playing for his country for the last time.
Lam lauds his PNG players after performance against Australia
Stanley Gene believes the future is bright for Papua New Guinea after making an emotional farewell to the international game.
The evergreen half-back played his final game for the Kumuls against reigning world champions Australia in Townsville.
Sadly there was to be no fairytale finish for the veteran Hull KR player, the Kangaroos winning the game 46-6 to end PNG's outside hopes of a semi-final berth.
After the final hooter a tearful Gene, the only player to have featured in the last three World Cups, was carried from the field by his team-mates.
Dream world
"I started off in this jumper and I'm still in a dream world," he said. "What a great way to finish as well, against the world champions.
"I'm so proud of these young kids (in the PNG squad) as well, they have a great future ahead of them.
"I want to thank everyone back home and everyone who has played a part in my career - especially all our supporters back in PNG."
Kumuls coach Adrian Lam praised his players for their performance against Australia, who finished the pool stages with a perfect record.
Menzie Yere's late try was greeted with the biggest cheer of the night at the Dairy Farmers Stadium as Papua New Guinea made sure they didn't fail to score.
"I thought there was plenty of effort put into the match, I was pretty happy with the defence through some parts of it considering what I've seen from Papua New Guinea sides in the past," Lam said.
"There was times there where they defended three or four sets on line which I was really proud of."
Although he did change his side following the emphatic win over England in Melbourne, Kangaroos coach Ricky Stuart insisted his players never took Papua New Guinea lightly.
"We had a huge amount of respect for them before the game and we weren't going to be ambushed by not preparing well enough physically and mentally," he said.
Enthusiastic
"We were after a really good start to the game because we knew they'd be very enthusiastic and physical.
"We had to not just match it but to overcome them by making sure they knew that we prepared for them as well as we've prepared for any team in this series."
Stuart faces something of a selection headache for the semi-final against either Ireland or Fiji having seen debutant David Williams grab a hat-trick.
"That'll be something that I'll just deal with within the team," he replied when asked if any of the new faces had forced their way into his first-choice 17.
"I'll talk to (senior players) Darren (Lockyer) and Cameron (Smith) and 'Alfie' (assistant Alan Langer) and 'Carty' (John Cartwright) about the team going forward."
