Papua New Guinea coach Adrian Lam has gone back to the future to inspire his Kumuls to dream of a major World Cup rugby league upset of the Kiwis tonight.
Lam has been there, done that as a Kumuls test player, but he turned the clock back 13 years to State of Origin to illustrate how miracles can happen.
In 1995 Lam was part of the Queensland side labelled no-hopers by most, under a rookie coach Paul Vautin, before they swept the heavily-favoured New South Wales 3-0.
"I've touched on a few stories from Origin, explained that I was in a similar situation with Queensland," Lam said.
"I told them how we sorted it out and believed in things that worked for us. We're working off a similar programme than we had there when we had success.
"There's a lot to be taken from that. No one's giving us a chance in this one or the next one (against Australia) and I can understand why." That includes Australian bookmakers who yesterday had the Kumuls at $13 to upset the Kiwis, who were a microscopic $1.01.
For the Kiwis, it's a no-brainer at the Gold Coast's Skilled Park. Any win will do, with a shock defeat almost certainly sending them tumbling out of the tournament.
Importantly they need to regain some confidence after being bashed by the Kangaroos, with England looming next weekend and potentially a week later in the semifinals.
Lam had braced his side for a Kiwis backlash from their 6-30 defeat to the Kangaroos last weekend.
"I don't think they're vulnerable but I think they're trying to bully PNG and take Sunday's result out on us.
"They were obviously disappointed with the result and a couple of individuals will be under the pump to improve their performance.
"We've just got to try and keep some composure, just stick with what we know and get a couple of bounces or referees' calls going our way."
One of England's leading referees Steve Ganson will have the whistle. He stamped his mark on Monday's Tonga-Ireland match by sinbinning two Tongan players and penalising them heavily.
Lam was happy they at least had the Kiwis looking over their shoulders after their performance against England when everyone expected them to be the World Cup easybeats.
Their draw is the worst of any side, needing to beat one of Australia, New Zealand or England to progress to the semifinals.
"It was the main thing we touched on leading up to this World Cup. I felt we didn't have the respect of a lot of countries, probably deservedly so because we don't play enough international matches. We certainly won a few hearts and supporters at least.
"That's the next part of our journey. We've got some respect and know we've got to turn those people into believers that we can back it up." That was Lam's biggest challenge and he felt his side were down "a couple of notches" at training earlier this week after coming so close to toppling England.
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