By: Issabella Narapal
Capital Rugby Union (CRU) praised 2026 Commander’s Cup Rugby Union tournament highlighting good sportsmanship, increase in game standard and hope for reviving PNGDF’s long-standing contribution to national sports.
For this year Commander’s Cup tournament, the Capital Rugby Union technical officials help providing technical support in ensuring games are run smoothly and successfully.
Representing the Capital Rugby Union at the pre-finals conference of the commander’s Cup, the Technical Operations Coordinator, Ivan Liveras, said the tournament is managed and coordinated well, creating room for success.
“We’re also really impressed on how the PMDF personnel participating in the Commanders Cup have managed the tournament and how they’ve conducted themselves.” Said Ivan Liveras.
“It just makes it much easier for us as match officials and competition officials to work with an organization and prepare to make sure that this tournament is a success. And that’s something that we’re really grateful for.”
Mr. Liveras highlighted that the competition also provides a space for learning for the CRU officials.
“There’s been lots of good learnings from this tournament that we’re going to take out of it. We’ve actually taken a lot out of this Commanders Cup in terms of dealing with all the subject matter experts and it’s been a really good experience in learning from them and a really good experience as well.”
He added that the competition has seen an increase in the standard of the games as well.
“from talking to a lot of the rugby union supporters that have come in, including the selective that are also part of this tournament, we’ve actually seen an increase of standard over the last four rounds.” Said Ivan Liveras.
Apart from that, Mr. Liveras expressed hope in continuing to build a good partnership with the PNGDF through sporting activities and initiatives in the future.
“for us in rugby union, we hope that we can really develop a relationship with the PNGDF, where we get more soldiers playing our code in the town competition. Because we know that when we have people from the police and defense force and the CIS taking part in rugby union competitions, they bring an element of partners that we need.” Ivan Liveras said.
“in the past we’ve had a lot of soldiers from the PNGDF represent PNG in terms of playing for football teams, we need to bring that back. So, we’re hoping that through our involvement, and hopefully we’ve put in good work for us, we’re hoping to really bring the PNGDF into the fold of CRU and various other civilian tournaments and other provinces where GNDPF units are based in.”
Mr. Liveras also echoed the CRU’s gratitude for being part of the Commander’s Cup 2026.
“the fact that we’ve got military units from all over the country, the Commanders Cup basically fits a profile of a national event, and we’re really honored and humbled to be a part of it.” Said Ivan Liveras.
