KEY POINTS:
Papua New Guinea is the only country in the world where league is the national sport and, boy, do they take their league seriously.
Fans routinely walk for days to get to an international match and often then cannot get tickets, the main ground at Port Moresby, Lloyd Robson Oval, officially holding just over 5000. But crowds of up to 15,000 have been reported there, with every vantage point taken.
The nation will declare a public holiday if they beat New Zealand at Skilled Stadium on the Gold Coast on Sunday.
The Kumuls have beaten the Kiwis just once, 24-22 in 1986 at Port Moresby, when the Australian referee Kevin Roberts denied the Kiwis wing Dane O'Hara a last-gasp try in the face of a crowd near rioting point.
Last month, police had to fire tear gas into a riotous crowd and shots over it after the Australian Prime Minister's XIII won the annual game between the two sides 54-30.
Which puts a big question mark over the call for a PNG side to be admitted to the Australian premiership.
The Aussies have been supporting the game there for some time, but, aside from the obvious safety issues, there is also a question over the financing of a PNG team. It would require around A$12 million ($13.8 million) annually in sponsorship because TV money would be minimal.
Rugby league was taken to Papua New Guinea by Australian and New Zealand troops in World War II and grew quickly. The first local competition in 1949 featured two teams.
Now there is a 12-team SP Cup national competition, from which about one-third of the Kumuls' World Cup squad is drawn.
In 1974 PNG were admitted to the Rugby League International Federation and played their first international at Port Moresby in 1975, losing 40 to 12 to England.
In 1979 the Kumuls toured England and France. They drew against a French side in PNG in 1981 and the victory over the Kiwis was their first test win.
The Kiwis coach Graham Lowe called that visit "the tour from hell".
Dean Lonergan, who played on the tour and at one stage had to remove a drunken team bus driver from his seat and take over the run down a windy mountain goat-track, agreed with that description "as far as the results went but it was a lot of fun".
The Kiwis won their first game 26-6 over an island selection but dropped the second to Southern Zone 26-20, props Brent Todd and James Goulding suffering tour-ending injuries and others like Mark Elia stomped on and choked.
They won the first test at Goroka in the highlands 36-26.
From there they went to Lae to play a Northern Selection. On arrival, two players went to inspect the ground and found it unusable.
"There had been torrential rain that had washed away parts of the surface. The locals were doing their best to repair it but the truckloads of dirt they brought in at each end of the ground had stones and rocks in it. We said we'd play somewhere else, a school or something, but there wasn't anywhere," Lowe said.
"They kept selling tickets right up to kick-off. I wasn't going to let the players go out there, someone could have been killed."
When it was announced the game had been called off, there could have been people killed, too. Tribesmen armed with spears made threats and the team retreated to its hotel and didn't leave again until the bus out.
They were two hours into a six-hour drive when they stopped to hold a coaching clinic at a school. On return to the bus, the driver was found to be plastered on homemade rum mixed in his Coca-Cola bottle.
"After threats of violence, we got him and the co-driver out of their seats and I took over," said Lonergan, who was working as a truck driver for Coke at the time.
"We went over some horrendous roads with some horrendous drop-offs and sometimes there wasn't a road. It built some team morale, that's for sure."
The Kumuls took an 18-8 half-time lead in the second test and as the game wound down and the locals held a 24-22 lead, everyone knew Roberts was under severe pressure.
"It's the only game where I ever reckon I was dudded by the referee," Lowe said, though understanding why Roberts disallowed O'Hara's try.
"They had the mud men in full swing. There would have been a riot [if the try had been awarded]. As we left they tried to tip the bus over."
Lonergan, who hadn't played, and the injured Todd missed the bus. They had gone to the commentary box to ensure the game finished on time. Todd was punched in the head by a spectator. They had to walk back out through the crowd in team suits to find a taxi.
"We were the only whities there and they were pretty aggressive towards us, giving us the push and shove. It gets pretty volatile when they get a bit of drink in them ... I don't mind telling you I was scared."
Lowe doesn't rate the chances of a PNG team in the NRL but he does have plenty of respect for the ability of their players.
In 1990, the Kumuls beat Great Britain 20-18 at Goroka. In the last World Cup in 2000 they beat France, South Africa and Tonga to make the quarter-finals.
They beat the Aussie PM's team 24-16 in 2005 and drew 24-all in 2007.
There has been little international contact since the 2000 World Cup and the PNG population is keenly following the team's fortunes this time.
Up there, they stop everything for league games, the way Aussies and Kiwis do for the Melbourne Cup.
