Rugby League World Cup: Ireland plan to upset Papua New Guinea

Ireland reached the quarter-finals in 2000 and 2008 but did not win a match at the last World Cup in 2013

Ireland captain Liam Finn has told his team to stay focused after a winning start to the World Cup as they seek to set up a quarter-final with England.

The Wolfhounds scored six tries as they beat Italy 36-12 and now face Group C favourites, co-hosts Papua New Guinea.

A win against PNG on Sunday would set-up the possibility of a quarter-final with England in Melbourne.

"We've got a lot of work to do before we dare to dream of going to Melbourne," said Wakefield back Finn.

Only the winners of Group C will qualify for the last eight, with co-hosts Papua New Guinea leading the way after beating Wales 50-6 on Saturday.

St Helens forwards Kyle Amor and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook were part of a powerful Irish forward display against Italy and Finn has no doubts his pack will be up to the physical battle in Port Moresby on Sunday.

"We've been telling the Australian press for the last two weeks that we've got a good team but nobody seemed to be listening and we don't really care," the half-back said.

"They can listen now if they want to - it's up to them.

"I've not seen them (forwards) back down yet. They didn't back down the other day when we faced Tonga in training. They certainly didn't back down against Italy.

"There's three or four lads in this team who really don't care who's who - they're not bothered who they're playing against or what their name is."

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Wales were heavily beaten in their opening match as David Mead scored a hat-trick for the co-hosts, but Finn believes John Kear's team will be targeting their final group match against Ireland as their best chance of ending a World Cup winless streak that stretches back to 2000.

"It was a young, inexperienced Wales side and I feel a bit for John with the amount of players unavailable to him. I don't want to sound critical of the players that played, but it's a very high level for them to stand up and match it.

"We've been excited about (the) game in Port Moresby for the whole trip but it's even more exciting now we've got the win under our belts. Next week is important. If we can go there and knock them off, then we're in a good position to get through our group.

"It's all about PNG now," he said. "And even if we go there and do a job, I'm sure Wales will fancy having a crack at us."

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