An epic 22-22 draw between the SP PNG Hunters and Souths Logan Magpies saw both teams treating the locals at the Logan Metro Football Fields to an intense and competitive 80mins of football on Saturday night.
Relying on a power game through the middle, the Hunters hit either side of the ruck as Wesser Tenza directed traffic smartly from dummy-half.
Souths-Logan compressed their defensive line to combat the Hunters momentum but couldn’t clean up a clever fifth tackle kick from five-eighth Sakias Komati which forced an error.
The Magpies threatened to ride their momentum into the ensuing kick-off set when PNG conceded another brace of penalties. Just as they did last week against the Clydesdales however, the Hunters defended their errors and held firm on their try line.
With good line speed and plenty of numbers in the tackle, the Hunters eventually forced an error when the Magpies shifted late in the count. With the scores tied up at 12-12, tempers began to flare as both sides fought for ascendency.
Eventually the referee had to intervene when the Magpies Tristan Sailor and the Hunters Sherwin Tanabi were sent to the sinbin midway through the second half.
A frantic final 10 minutes followed as both sides desperately searched for the winning play. PNG had the final shot when Souths-Logan conceded a penalty right on the buzzer, but the 45-metre kick proved a stretch too far for the Hunters who had to settled for a 22 all draw despite arguably being the better side throughout. SP PNG Hunters Head Coach Stanley Tepend was optimistic about the result.
“It’s a little disappointing not to get the win as I felt, we were probably the better side for most of the game.”
“We just gave it away at the end there. We probably could’ve closed the game out a little better when we were in front, but that comes with experience. We’ll learn a lot from that.”
Tepend said he was happy to focus on the positives and didn’t want to put the blame on the Hunters missed conversions.
“We did have an opportunity at the end there to win it, but we don’t want to complain or focus on those missed conversions. We could’ve done a few other things in the game a bit better – six-agains, cheap turnovers, our discipline – to help control the result.”
“There’s still a lot more improvement in us,” the Hunters Head Coach admitted.