High-toned DeeBee46 Rugby League Club from 9 mile in Port Moresby proved their class grabbing the top price of K2, 000 at the first-of-its-kind Korearu Cup Rugby Tournament hosted over the long weekend at kukipi in Gulf Province. They were crowned the overall winners after going undefeated in all their four rugby matches, followed by the TK Dogs from Konedobu with 12 points taking out K1, 000 cash price. The third placing went to KFaris Saukuru of 9 Mile with scored 11 points and the fourth place went to Black Brother’s picking up 8 points. The Korearu Cup Rugby 9’s tournament was played over the long Queen’s Birthday weekend from the 11th – 14th June and was a success. A total of 17 teams that registered participated during the 3 days of intense competition. Director and Founder of the tournament, Christopher Korearu said this tournament was a great opportunity for the villagers to gain experience and skills as most of the players from the city teams were elite players who are registered players in some of the top rugby clubs in the city and it helped the village teams on skills and knowledge of the game. “The talent in the village was amazing, the teams in the village gave quite a challenge to the city teams”, said Christopher. The goal of the Korearu Cup tournament was to create economic empowerment for the local people as well as to create pathways for the youths to basically get them out of bad habits like drugs and alcohol and illegal activities and engage in sports. “Although there were some hiccups and social issues as usual, we were able to pull through”, said Christopher. “You got to work through the issues, through the problems and get to the final solution to conclude the tournament and it was hard work in negotiating and managing as the village has never done this before and trying to meet the expectation of the players who came in and the different supporters but we got it done”, added Christopher. Out of the 17 teams that registered to take part in the rugby 9’s tournament, only 3 teams were from the city whilst the other 14 teams were from Kukipi and the nearby villages. Mr Korearu said that the success of the Korearu Cup tournament had enabled the tournament to continue next year.