After a consistent season where she played every game, Australia Prime Minister’s XIII forward Lillian Yarrow is looking to top off her footy year with a special game in Papua New Guinea.
Playing all but three of her 12 games for the Cowboys as starting prop, the Rockhampton junior is set to start up front again alongside Sophie Holyman and was soaking in the whole experience.
“(This is) a first step back into a bit of representative footy for me, so I'm really excited about taking the field on Sunday and playing with the girls,” Yarrow said.
“The girls have come from all over, girls that I've never met before, so it's really cool to be a part of such a great campaign.
“There lots of history behind it, lots of players that have come before me, so very privileged to be here.
“I feel like I had a really good season with the Cowboys this year; very consistent and I played every game off the back of my previous season where I was in and out due to injury and … came back from ACL, so it felt very good (this year).
“I definitely came in this year with more confidence and I guess that just goes to the group that I had around me and then just the coaching staff as well, Rick [Henry] and the team, they're unreal.”
The women’s team arrived in PNG on Friday, alongside the men’s team and the Australian Schoolboys and Schoolgirls teams and since their arrival, the four sides been kept busy with a number of official engagements.
The Australian sides attended a reception at the Australian High Commission upon their arrival and have also visited the Bomana War Cemetery to pay their respects, as well as taking part in some NRL junior clinics, promoting respect and wellbeing.
“This is my first time in PNG; it's really exciting,” Yarrow said.
“It’s very different, very eye opening, but it's very beautiful.
“The people are so beautiful, the culture, they welcomed us with a dance which was really cool to experience a bit of their PNG culture; it's been really good so far.”
Sunday’s game day action kicks off at 9am PNGT / AEST with four massive games.
International Tour Match | Junior Kumuls & Orchids v Australian Schools
The Australian Schoolboys and Australian Schoolgirls will feature in the morning games, which will be live streamed on NRL.com.
The women’s game against the PNG PM’s XIII Women’s side and the men’s match against the PNG PM’s XIII Men’s team will round out the afternoon.
Match: PNG PM XIII v AUS PM XIII
Round 3 -
home Team
PNG PM XIII
away Team
AUS PM XIII
Venue: Santos National Football Stadium, Port Moresby
Match: PNG PM XIII v AUS PM XIII
Round 1 -
home Team
PNG PM XIII
away Team
AUS PM XIII
Venue: Santos National Football Stadium, Port Moresby
*Rugby League fans across the Pacific are set to be able to watch the Prime Minister's XIII Women's and Men's matches on free to air television, through the PacificAus TV initiative and the NRL’s broadcast partners.
PacificAus TV is an initiative of the Australian Government and is managed by Free TV Australia, and has played an important role in delivering high-quality content that resonates with Pacific audiences since 2020.
The PM’s XIII matches are being transmitted on 17 Pacific broadcast partners - across 11 countries and seven time zones, via:
EMTV and NBC (Papua New Guinea) & Digicel.
Fiji TV, FBC and Mai TV (Fiji)
SBC TV1, EFKS TV2 and Apia TV3 (Samoa)
CITV and Vaka TV (Cook Islands)
TTV (Solomon Islands)
VBTC (Vanuatu)
Kiri One (Kiribati)
NTV (Nauru)
TVBC (Tuvalu)
TBC (Tonga)
BCN (Niue)