Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) new team to play in Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL) club competition needs a name, and the country’s rugby league-mad citizens have been asked to provide one — but will they opt for the Bees, Butterflies or Boars?
“Rugby league is in our DNA,” PNG Prime Minister James Marape said after launching a competition this week for the public to name the side before they join the NRL in 2028.
“It’s more than a sport — it’s something that binds us together as a nation,” Marape said.
Photo: AFP
Suggestions listed on the official competition Web site included the Boars, the Coastal Thunderhawks and the Chiefs.
Jpwever, social media has been flooded with other names such as the Huntsmen, the Paradise, the PNG Flying Foxes, as well as the Bees and Butterflies. Papua New Guinea’s international rugby league team are called the Kumuls, a local word for the country’s distinctive birds of paradise.
The winning name is to be unveiled next month, when PNG marks 50 years since declaring independence from colonial administrator Australia.
“As we prepare to mark 50 years of independence in 2025, the announcement of our team name will be one of the proudest moments in our history,” Marape said.
Rugby league borders on a national obsession in PNG, where adults and children play on muddy fields using plastic bottles stuffed with grass. Promising athletes are snapped up to play professionally in Australia and England.
“By inviting every Papua New Guinean to help us name our team, we are building something that truly belongs to its people,” said Andrew Hill, who led the side’s bid to join Australia’s competition.
Australia is spending US$390 million to establish a PNG club in the NRL, an act of sports diplomacy designed to ward off China.
The team are to be based in PNG’s capital, Port Moresby, a hardscrabble city with a reputation for violence and poverty.
Foreign players and their families are to be housed in gated compounds and offered broad tax incentives to sweeten the deal and build a competitive squad.
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