PUT in perspective, the Pool of Death Papua New Guinea have found themselves in is far from a pool of death. And through all the talk of betting agencies giving the Kumuls a start of 100 points, coach Adrian Lam has made it his mission to concern himself more with numbers of another variety.
"The scoreline won't matter against Australia," Lam, the former Sydney Roosters halfback, said of tonight's game in Townsville. "It could be 20, it could be 40, it could be 60, I really don't care. All we've asked for is for them to give it their best shot - what have we got to fear?"
Not the real pool of death - the HIV/AIDS epidemic in PNG, which Lam revealed as the real motivation behind the Kumuls' World Cup campaign.
Lam's players intend to raise not only their own profiles and the hopes of their nation - which has the highest rate of HIV in the southern hemisphere - but more importantly awareness of the syndrome.
"It could be up to 2 per cent of people in Papua New Guinea who've got AIDS," Lam said.
Lam's knowledge of the subject started with a flinch - just days before the Kumuls took on the Prime Minister's XIII in Port Moresby this year, as he shook the hand of Peter Momo, who is part of the committee for AIDS in Sport in PNG.
"I didn't know who he was c I went to shake his hand and he said, 'I'm one of the guys with AIDS'. I wanted to pull away, and I got a bit embarrassed about it.
"I do a lot of stuff for AIDS in Papua New Guinea, and I thought that I was up on it. Until he was actually standing there sweating, and I shook his hand and I felt myself wanting to pull my hand away, it hit home c I listened to his story and the whole time I was thinking about that shake. I felt like I had to ring him again. I met him and told him how I felt when he shook my hand, that I was embarrassed and I apologised to him that I felt that way."
And so the day before the Kumuls left PNG for the World Cup, the players were given their motivational talk not from a former player or sporting legend, but a perspiring man who had simply offered his hand to a halfback.
"After everything he said I felt like the team needed to hear that," Lam said. "He gave me and the team hope. What have we got to fear? We're not dying. We're not going to lose a leg. It tied in with our World Cup campaign. When he first got told, it was all doom and gloom and a nightmare, and he was frightened. But as time went on, he had this belief that if he had education and learnt about it, he'd be all right.
"He's been living with it for nine years and he's still fighting it every day of his life.
"He was inspirational. He spoke about the fact he still had a life to live, and he had hope and spirit and passion for life. The players sat there for an hour. I looked around and the players' eyes were just focused on him - they did not move.
"When he left, we had a team meeting, where I suggested that if they were inspired by it, they should let him and his words inspire us to this World Cup."
And they did. Many of their on-field calls through the World Cup were drawn from Momo's words. And even though Lam has read to them an article which detailed the bookies' offering the century start, he believes they will be motivated more by Momo than anything else.
"Regardless of the score [tonight], I know we've improved as a country," Lam said. "We want to win, but it's always been more c it's more than just a game of footy for these guys.
"We've got 11 [domestic players], and some of them don't write, some of them can't read. It's just an indication of the struggle, and that's why I'm so proud of the efforts.
"I think the highlight for the whole campaign, and even the World Cup itself, was when they scored that first try against England, and 13 of them were within a metre.
"It just showed how close they are as a group, and it all linked back to this talk - 'what have we got to fear in this pool?' It could be worse." How they will line up tonight * Karmichael Hunt, Darius Boyd, Brent Tate, Joel Monaghan, David Williams, Terry Campese, Johnathan Thurston, Josh Perry, Cam Smith (c), Brent Kite, Anthony Watmough, Anthony Tupou, Craig Fitzgibbon. Res: Scott Prince, Steve Price, Paul Gallen, Israel Folau.
* John Wilshere (c), David Moore, Tu'u Maori, Anton Kui, George Keppa, Stanley Gene, Keith Peters, Jason Chan, Paul Aiton, Trevor Exton, Neville Costigan, James Nightingale, Rod Griffin. Interchange from: K Prior, N Slain, J Parker, C Wabo, J Aston, M Yere, G Moni.
TV: Channel 9, 8.30pm
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