NEWPORT’S Joe Burke and Dalton Grant could make their Rugby League World Cup debuts when Wales clash with Fiji in an inter-group game in Townsville, Australia this Sunday.

Oldham prop Burke, 27, Danny Ansell and Gavin Bennion are in head coach John Kear’s 21-man squad following injuries to Chester Butler, Sam Hopkins and Matt Seamark.

Butler was concussed during his first international appearance last weekend as the Dragons were thrashed 50-6 by Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby.

Hopkins and Seamark, who would have been playing in the town he was born, also picked up knocks against the Kumuls.

Grant, 27, is also included in Kear's matchday squad.

Wales have to beat Fiji, who themselves routed the USA 58-12 in their opening game of the tournament, to stand a chance of making the quarter-finals.

“Obviously we were really disappointed because we felt we didn’t do ourselves justice,” head coach Kear told the BBC after Saturday’s hammering.

“You can use the climate, the oppressive heat and the humidity as an excuse but we needed to make a better fist of it.

“I felt we gave in too easily to the conditions and I think it was an easy reason to use for under-performing.

“We can’t do that, we’ve got to be harder on ourselves, and I believe we have been.

“And obviously by doing that I believe we’ll be better when we play against Fiji, again in a very warm climate in Townsville.

“It’s difficult to say (the Papua New Guinea defeat) has been a wake-up call because if you look at the bookies’ odds, we were 6/1 in a two-horse race, so we were rank outsiders.

“Unfortunately for us, we played like rank outsiders as well.

“It wasn’t a wake-up call, it was just disappointment that we’d failed in our quest to give a good account of ourselves.

“That’s the biggest thing we need to rectify because against a Fiji team with quality players we know, once again, we’ll be the underdogs.

“But we certainly hope to perform a lot better than we did in Port Moresby.”