Farah steers Lebanon to victory over Niue
With Parramatta playmaker Mitchell Moses and prop Tim Mannah rested for the warm-up match, Farah partnered South Sydney club mate Adam Doueihi in the halves, while recently re-signed Canterbury star shared the dummy half duties with Auburn Warriors hooker Jamie Clark.
The Cedars led 6-0 at quarter time after a converted 17th minute try by fullback Anthony Layoun and went further ahead in the 24th minute when Doueihi put Newcastle centre James Elias over with a perfectly timed pass.
Former Eels junior Jason Wehbe, who had a stint playing rugby union in Japan, staked his claim for inclusion in the team to play France at Canberra Stadium on 29 October with a perfectly weighted cross-field kick for Manly Under 20s premiership winger Bilal Maarbani to score.
Wehbe later crossed for a try himself after Farah sliced through the defence, while Blacktown Workers forward Nick Kassis and North Sydney Bears winger Abbas Miski also scored for Lebanon in the second half.
Lebanon 32 (Layoun, Elias, Maarbani, Miski, Wehbe, Kassis tries; Doueihi 2/2, Maarbani 2/2, Miski 0/2 goals) defeated Niue 16 (Hunt, Schaumkel, Lolo tries; Lolo 1/2, Seini 1/1 goals)
Slater set for Kangaroos recall
Cronulla’s Valentine Holmes played fullback in the Pacific Tri-Series in Suva on Saturday after Slater was rested along with Melbourne team-mates Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Will Chambers and North Queensland’s Michael Morgan.
However, Meninga indicated all five would play in the World Cup opener, including Slater, whose last appearance for Australia was the 2015 ANZAC Test.
“I was very happy with the guys efforts, we only let one try in so defensively they were outstanding and from our point of view we got a lot of value out of the games,” Meninga said.
“Billy will come back into the squad for the first game but Valentine Holmes is sniffing around and Tom Trbojevic can play fullback to so we have got three good options.”
The Kangaroos defeated PNG Kumuls 20-4 in the 40 minute match, with Trbojevic, Josh Mansour, Dane Gagai and Wade Graham crossing the stripe.
Rhyse Martin scored PNG's sole try.
The Kangaroos backed that up with an 18-0 win over Fiji Bati thanks to tries from Josh Dugan, James Maloney and Ben Hunt.
Earlier in the day PNG defeated Fiji 10-0 in the Pacific Tri-Series opener.
France forced to make late change to World Cup squad
Bonnet suffered the injury in the 56th minute of the match and he was ruled out of the World Cup after scans revealed the SO Avignion star had ruptured his anterior cruciate.
Maxime Herold also failed to finish the match after being concussed in the fourth minute, while there were concerns about a knee injury suffered by Nabil Djalout but both are due to arrive in Sydney with the French team on Monday.
France coach Aurélien Cologni used the match as a dry run for the opening game against Lebanon and would have been happy with the combination of captain Theo Fages and William Barthau, who won man-of-the match after laying on tries to Bastien Ader and Benjamin Jullien.
Former Sydney Roosters Under 20s player Mark Kheirralah, who plays for Toulouse, laid claim to a place in the starting line-up for the Lebanon clash with a strong performance.
By Brad Walter | @BradWalterSport
Chief Correspondent, RLWC2017
