The Southern Confederate has confirmed 16 premiership-winning teams to participate in the national club championships knockout stages in the Southern confederate before the finals in Lae.
Apart from other matches played on Saturday the main game was between Brothers, the premiers of the Port Moresby Rugby Football League who took on premiers of the Port Moresby Suburban League, the Mountain Bulls club.
The Brothers and Bulls rammed into each other for the chance to progress through to the next stage of the championships.
The Brothers held strong against an aggressive Bulls side, their persistence rewarded accordingly when brothers managed to score first. The Bulls cover defence was too slow to stop finisher Noni Bomai who scored the unconverted try, taking the brothers to a 4-0 lead.
The Bulls had the Brothers duo of Jerry and David Teme who play for the Hunters and the Hela wigmen, but lack of execution in their set-pieces held them back from scoring a four-pointer only managing a penalty conversion to trail two points to four into half time.
The Bulls tried their best to score in the second half, but still found it hard to execute their set plays, they ended the match devastated going down by two points.
Southern Confederate Director Gwaibo Mairi said affiliate leagues outside of Port Moresby are also going through their eliminations.
“We still have a few leagues to finish their grand final, we had the Gulf Province Knockouts the previous weekend, the Western Province will their theirs and hopefully by the end of this weekend we will complete the Northern and Milne Bay eliminations,” Mairi said
The teams that took part and have lost, like Hiri West and the Mountain Bulls, are knocked out of the championship race.
“This is a knockouts competition, so the teams that loose bow out of the tournament,” Mairi added
Considering that this is tournament has been reintroduced, having clubs from each affiliate league of PNGRFL challenging each other brings a new level of competition for participating teams, is a positive step by PNGRFL.
“I thank the PNGRFL for reintroducing the concept it gives another level of competition for champion clubs in each of the affiliates when they challenge each other,” Mairi said
