WILL GENIA, RATED by many as one of the best halfbacks in world rugby over recent years, is one of the few Papua New Guinean sportspeople to have made it to the top in Australia. He is now playing in France but is still available for selection by the Wallabies, having played more than fifty Tests for Australia. Will’s father, Kilroy Genia, a former PNG minister for foreign affairs and defence, sent him to school in Australia where he played for the Brisbane Boys College First XV for several years and the Australian Schoolboys. He was then signed up by the Queensland Reds.

Another Papua New Guinean, Aidan Toua, is playing fullback for the ACT Brumbies in the Super Rugby competition. He’s another product of a Brisbane boarding school – ‘Churchie’, the Anglican Church Grammar School. Those two learnt to play their rugby union at those two GPS schools. Rugby union is played in PNG but it has nowhere near the fanatical following that rugby league has.