By Sylvester Gawi – EMTV Sport, Lae
The Lae Snax Tigers proved too classy for the SNS Port Moresby Vipers, beating them 48-nil in the Digicel Cup round two match on Sunday afternoon.
The Tigers scored eight converted tries in front of a very vocal home crowd, at the Lae Rugby League ground.
Port Moresby Vipers had a full strength team; however, poor ball handling errors denied their chances of registering points. There wasn’t much energy in the game in the first half; with both teams having problems with ball security. Tigers made several try attempts on the far sides but were held off by Vipers.
With a few seconds to go before half-time, Tigers five-eight Charlie Simon, dummied in front of the uprights and sent in Charles Martin to open the scoreboard for the tigers.
With a successful conversion kick from Charlie Simon, Tigers led 6-nil into half-time
“This is pretty good effort from the boys. From last week’s win the boys have really dug deep in as we believed that Vipers had a bye last week and will be coming out fresh,” said Tigers Coach, Stanley Tepend.
The Port Moresby Vipers didn’t expect much from the Tigers’ defensive play. Led by Captain, Sydney Fred, the Tigers went hard on the visitors in the second half. Silky tigers forward, Ismael Balkawa, found his way through the Vipers defense to put his team in front with 12 points.
Two minutes later Tigers’ hooker, Noel Joel, gave a short ball to Sidney Fred who dived next to the uprights for the Tigers to lead 18 nil.
From the rebound, the tigers return with a breakthrough from Ismael Balkawa to set up Roy Kela who passed on to Noel Joel and Joel sent in David Loko for a try under the posts.
“We are going to focus one game at a time. We are facing Gurias this weekend and we know they are always strong. We will prepare better for them,” Tepend added.
Other try scorers for the day included, Ismael Balkawa who scored his second, Anderson Benford, Jeffery Maino and Robert Vuia.
Charlie Simon converted eight from eight attempts to bring the home side to a 48 – Nil victory.
The Tigers will host the Agmark Rabaul Gurias in Lae this Sunday.
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