Selection talk in Tok Pisin under the PNG v Australia PM's XIII highlights
The annual Prime Ministers' match drew more than three hundred comments in under a day, where a regular NRL upload usually collects a handful, and many came from Papua New Guinea.
NRL - National Rugby LeagueStory of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 199,826 views a day, 19 times a normal first day on this channel (10,510).
Rugby League International | PNG PM's XIII v AUS PM's XIII | Match Highlights | 2026
The Prime Ministers' XIII match is rugby league's annual handshake between two neighbors. Papua New Guinea, where the sport is the national game, takes on an Australian side usually drawn from NRL players whose clubs missed the finals. The league's own highlights of the 2026 edition went up on Saturday and passed 190,000 views in about 22 hours, far beyond a normal first day on the official channel.
The comment section moved even faster than the views. A regular NRL video gathers a few comments on its first day. This one had more than three hundred, and a good share of them read like a team meeting held in public. Papua New Guinean viewers, some writing in Tok Pisin, argue about how the side was picked, how it tackled and whether players on form were left out. Others answer with gallows humor: one suggests PNG should get unlimited tackles while Australia keeps the usual six, another floats a weight cap. A lighter thread asks whether Ezra Mam's try celebration borrowed a whip dance from a PNG player.
The same Saturday gave PNG fans something else to watch. A short on the Junior Kumuls upsetting the Australian Schoolboys also outran the channel's usual start, as did a footwork clip titled "Somebody stop him!"
Published on Trari
Read next
What viewers say
Did Ezra Mam just did the whip dance try celebration similar to Gurias No. 9 Emmanuel Alfred? 😅
@sayvienparais6388See it on YouTubeGive it up for the kangaroos, what a great performance. Always the best side 🎉
@yanejeremiahSee it on YouTube
Public comments from the video's page on YouTube
Is this your channel?
Share the story with your audience: in a community post, in your channel's description or on your socials. The text and the badge are ready.
You may use the picture, the badge, and link it to this story.
- Channel
- NRL - National Rugby League
- Subscribers
- 637,000 ▲ 2,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 4,472,086
- Channel views, pace per day
- 463,757 (on a normal day: 586,687)
- Video published
- October 3, 2026
- Video views so far
- 193,448 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 199,826
The numbers
The highlights pulled in nearly nineteen times the channel's usual first-day audience, and the comment count ran even further ahead.
💡 Test your knowledge
What is the nickname of Papua New Guinea's national rugby league team?
PNG's national side is known as the Kumuls, a local name for the bird of paradise; Bati, Mate Ma'a and Toa Samoa are Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.
