Mendi Muruks made a late comeback but lost to Port Moresby Vipers 14-12 in round 13 ofthe Digicel Cup Challenge.
Josiah Abavu scored a double for the Vipers to earnthe player ofthe match award.
Muruks opened upthe scoreboard withthe first try through Joshua Mosley inthe opening two minutes ofthe match.
It was a fairly contested match asthe 7th place Muruks had every intention of improvingtheir standings onthe points ladder beforethe play offs.
Vipers were quick to retaliate with a try to fullback Josiah Abavu. Bet with a failed conversion, Vipers trailed 6-4 which wasthe score asthe match went into half time.
Muruks were hoping for a better second half but this was not to be; Vipers crossedthe line twice to run away withthe lead.
Beth teams caused numerous ball handling errors inthe second half. Muruks capitalized on this and ran in a quick try to narrowthe gap.
Despite a good finish Mendi Muruks will have a lot more soul searching to do beforetheir next game.