Rabaul Gurias today took out the bemobile Cup rugby league grand final with a 24-14 win over Enga Mioks at the Lloyd Robson Oval in
In front of a capacity crowd, the men from the land of tubuans, dukduks and volcanoes gave a football lesson to the younger and less-experienced Engans in a game which was controlled by Australian refereeing legend Bill Harrigan.
The Gurias raced to a safe 14-0 lead at halftime, and although the Mioks staged a strong second half renaissance, time was not on their side.
Rabaul was first to score in the 13th minute when prop Rodney Pora powered over near the posts, and with the extras from halfback Rolly Matalau, took an early 6-0 lead.
Matalau followed this shortly after with a penalty goal to push his side further to 8-0.
Enga was in sixes and sevens in the first half, allowing agro to creep into their game, which Rabaul capitalised on with another try to reserve forward Sam Ponda just before the halftime hooter, goaled by Matalau, to lead 14-0.
The Gurias shot to a seemingly-unassailable 20-0 lead in the 45th minute with a corner try to winger Boas Ruru, which was goaled by Matalau.
The Mioks’ never-say-die attitude showed after that as they scored tried through winger Miok Anjo in the 49th minute and prop Esau Siune in the 60th minute, which was goaled by halfback Mai Tom, to trail 20-10.
Rabaul, with machine-like efficiency, drove the final nail into Enga’s coffin with a 71st minute try to Ruru to complete his double.
The Mioks had some consolation on the hooter with a try to winger Jason Tali, however, it was all too little, too late.
Gurias’ hooker Sakias Kabange capped off a memorable day by being named man-of-the-match.
Governor General Sir Paulias Matane, who happens to be from the land of the Gurias, presented the inaugural bemobile Cup to Gurias’ captain George Moni as a prelude to celebrations.
The cup was delivered by helicopter to the paddock to be unveiled by its designer, 13-year-old
A capacity crowd jam-packed the Lloyd Robson Oval to witness yesterday’s grand final.
Excellent job Malum.
ReplyDeleteThanks. It's my pleasure and given the excellent response, I'm now looking at the possibility of a 24-hour news services from Papua New Guinea utilising the internet.
ReplyDeleteMalum
Malum that is a GREAT ida. Some of us have to wait till monday night (even tuesday) to get weekend news from PNG, most of it spreading by word of mouth and ending up somewhat inaccurate. A 24-hour news service would be muchly appreciated. Full sapot! Congrats to ol Tobras, rugby league em yumi. Wouldnt might seeing video footage of this match.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your support bro. Alas, I'm more of a newspaper man than a TV man, so I don't have video footage.
ReplyDeleteMalum
Malum,
ReplyDeletethanks alot for the comprehensive coverage of the bemobile cup grand final. I normally update the http://bemobilecup.sportspng.com blog and have been present at PRL on every games but just missed yesterdays game because I was caught up in an accident at Sogeri. When I got back to POM in the evening, I didn't know the result of the game so I did a net search to find that you were the very first person in the whole world to post the results. Congraduations for doing a fantastic job. I did a post on my blog and referred visitors here for more information.
P.S I suggest you tweak your layout a bit to be make the blog a bit more presentable. I can lend a hand if you like.
Hi Syl, great blog you have.Thanks for your support. I've been more content with content than design of my blogs, so, haven't been able to tweak my layout. Will take your advise and may need your help. Do keep in touch. Where are youi working, by the way?
ReplyDeleteMalum
Malum,
ReplyDeletethanks for taking your time out to respond to my comment.
Send me an email and I'll let you know where I work. I'm also interested to discuss some other things as well. Email: sylvasta@gmail.com