There were a few bangs and a few whimpers when the Australian Prime Minister’s XIII snatched a last minute 24-18 victory against Papua New Guinea on Sunday.
The before-and-after-game chaos that has become synonymous with the annual game in the rugby league-mad Pacific Island nation was largely absent in 2012.
The 10,000-strong crowd at the Lloyd Robson stadium in Port Moresby did not rush the field to tear at the clothes of the Aussie side, who are revered in PNG – the only nation on earth where rugby league is the national sport.
Nor did the 3000 people who were locked out of the game hurl rocks and bottles over the fence in anger at missing out – a feature of previous encounters.
Some had queued for up to six hours in the blistering and maddeningly sticky 31c heat to chance a 20 kina ($A9) ticket to see their idols play.
Tensions boiled over in the crowd outside the stadium about before kick-off, however.
A projectile aimed at police was answered by officers and military security personnel launching into the crowd with swift and terrible blows from their makeshift truncheons – sticks, mop handles, and fanbelts wrapped in gaffer-tape.
When people didn’t scatter fast enough, coke cans were snatched from road-side sellers and hurled at them.
One security officer tried to stop media filming the incident, explaining that such methods of crowd control would be misunderstood.
The crowd returned moments later.
Inside the packed stadium, a section of roof collapsed, bringing down half of a large Toyota Motors sign into the crowd.
A metal support tower, unable to support the weight of fans hanging off it, slowly leaned and finally fell into the roof of the stands, sending its hangers-on scattering into the crowd.
But despite the flash-in-the-pan chaos, there were no visible injuries.
Even the roof occupied by the media came with a warning from a police officer who wanted to clear the space of all non-media personnel.
The roof was built many years ago, he said.
“It will collapse,” he had told AAP at the start of the match.
