The Kavieng District Rugby League 9s Selection Trials Tournament kicked off on Friday 16th July at the Tsoi Primary school oval in the Lavongai LLG.
Present to kick off the Tournament was New Ireland Governor Sir Julius Chan and Deputy Governor Sammy Missen accompanied by Chairman for Sports and Kavieng Town Mayor Sikal Kelep, Chairman for Law and Order Edwin Maigen, Chairman for Works and Transport Clement Moson and Provincial Police commander Felix Nebanat.
The purpose of the two day tournament is to seek out the best players and select from three Kavieng LLG’s that will then form the Kavieng District team to participate in the provincial selections, ultimately selecting Elite Provincial teams to represent New Ireland during the PNG Games in 2022.
Friday’s Tournament began with a lively match between the Tikana and Lavongai Open women’s divisions. The Tikana’s opening number did little to stir up the Lovo’s, who made a come back during the second half to win the match 8 points to four.
A development team for under 18 girls from Kavieng Urban are also taking part in the Tournament. Chairman for New Ireland Rugby League Benjamin Wakip thanked the delegates for making it to the tournament which was expected because the New Ireland Government was the sole sponsor of the Tournament chipping in K30,000 to support the games. Another 3,000 was also handed over to the New Ireland Rugby League officials on the day to support the competition.
“Rugby League is a development pathway and New Ireland is leading the way after it was the first province in the country to trial the PNGRFL Governance framework. Now that framework has been implemented up in the Highlands, in the Momase region, the Southern region. On the 24th of this month the New Ireland model will be launched in Kokopo, East New Britain province for the Niugini Islands region,” said Wakip.
He also relayed that the structure is still being refined, with a vision of club competitions to be held on the weekends in the pipeline and eventually a development program for Rugby League that will create a pool of players to be selected for a Franchise team to be formed.
Governor Sir Julius said “We have opened the road for you but the future is in your hands. Take victory and defeat at the same time, if you lose, learn from it, and if you don’t become too comfortable, remain competitive. May the best team win.”
For the Namatanai District the Rugby 9s competition was held in Konos in March this year. It had teams from Nimamar, Namatanai Rural, SNA, Matalai and Tanir.
The Provincial selection tournament will be held from the 24th to the 25th of this month in Namatanai town in the lead up to New Ireland Day celebrations.