Former Hull KR coach Craig Sandercock has landed an international coaching role ahead of this year\u2019s World Cup \u2013 after being named as the new boss of the Papua New Guinea Orchids.<\/p>\n
Sandercock had a two-year spell in England between 2012 and 2014 in charge of the Robins. He was sacked during the 2014 season and replaced by Chris Chester before returning to Australia.<\/p>\n
However, he has since forged a thriving and successful career in the women\u2019s game, leading the Wests Tigers in NRLW before now being given his big break in the international arena.<\/p>\n
Sandercock will lead PNG\u2019s women\u2019s side for the upcoming tournament, which represents a big moment for the former Rovers boss \u2013 having growing up in Papua New Guinea briefly as a youngster.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am genuinely excited by the opportunity to coach the PNG Orchids. Having lived in Papua New Guinea for two years as a small child, this role feels like a full-circle moment for me,\u201d Sandercock said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am impressed by the potential of the local players, their natural talent, athleticism, and passion for rugby league are outstanding. I look forward to working with all the players to harness that potential, build a competitive squad, and prepare strongly for the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
PNG are in a group with Fiji, France and New Zealand for the tournament and will play two of their three home games in Port Moresby.<\/p>\n
Sandercock will continue his commitments with Wests throughout the NRLW season and the Tigers\u2019 head of women\u2019s football, Charmain Steventon, welcomed Sandercock\u2019s new role.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis appointment is testament to Craig\u2019s qualities as a leader and coach. We\u2019re proud to have him at the Club and excited to see him take on this opportunity,\u201d Steventon said.<\/p>\n
The tournament gets underway in October, with the other group comprising of Australia, Samoa, England and Wales. The top two from each group progress to the semi-finals.<\/p>\n
WATCH THE NEW EPISODE OF THE LRL PODCAST<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Hull KR coach Craig Sandercock has landed an international coaching role ahead of this year\u2019s World Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-561863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}