PNG RFL ANNOUNCES TEAM FOR COMMONWEALTH RUGBY LEAGUE U19 NINES CHAMPIONSHIPS

PAPUA New Guinea Rugby Football League has announced a 15-member squad for the Commonwealth Rugby League U19 Nines Championships in Glasgow later this month.

Chairman Sandis Tsaka when announcing the team stressed that the team comprised the best players available who have been monitored over a period of time with the final team selected during trials in Lae last week.

National Selectors Max Tiri, a former Kumul, who represents the Highlands region, Gairo Pepena from Southern, Samson Clayton Wells from Islands and Killian Nangan from Northern selected the team to represent PNG.

Tsaka said that there was many players from the 64 involved who displayed a high level of skills during the trials, which augurs well for the future of the game in PNG and they will be monitored for the future.

However, those named were players who the selectors thought displayed higher level of skills, which are suited to the shortened version of Nines Rugby League and was selected irrespective of the regions they came from.

“We need to get away from the practice of picking players based on regions, trying to keep a balance for the four regions, to represent PNG in international competitions. We have to pick players based on merit and whether they fulfill the selection criteria to give us sides that we believe will be competitive at international tournaments. This is the only way forward for PNG to improve internationally and I’m very happy the National selectors have done just that.”

The team, which goes into camp on June 15 in Port Moresby, includes one SP PNG Hunter in Stanton Albert and two Digicel Cup players Warren Glare and Nickson Borana from Lae side, Snax Tigers.

The squad departs on June 21 for Glasgow, Scotland and is scheduled to get there a few days before the two-day tournament kicks off on June 27 for further training in the different conditions.

Dennis Miall from Lae, who has been involved with the schoolboys program for the last three years, will coach the team.

Tsaka said Miall is very familiar with PNGRFL’s visions for the future and is currently the Schoolboys Development Officer for the Lae region and Deputy Principal at Lae Secondary School.

“Dennis has been involved at this level for 3 years now, knows most of the players, has setup a rugby league academy at Lae Secondary School and has successfully coached schoolboys teams on International Tours to Brisbane for the last two years. We believe he deserves a chance at this level and has now been given that opportunity. We need to identify new people and more importantly people who will maintain the high standards and code of conduct we have implemented in all of our programs.”

He also has very experienced personnel on the coaching and management team, which includes Toksy Nema and Philip Boge as trainers and Shane Morris a Level 3 coach as Tour Manager.

Team official is Joe Tokam, a director on the PNGRFL Board.

All four have been involved in the game at a very high level in PNG with Boge a former Kumul with Nema and Morris being former Digicel Cup coaches.

Tokam is also well versed with the game in PNG at an administrative level and is a former Kumul coach.

The full squad is:

Bill Paul

Warren Glare

Stanton Albert

Gahuna Silas

Solomon Nandepe

Josiah Jimmy

Lavax Ketauwo

Bali Las

Joel Kapia Kee

Toware Kaneke

Ereman Ken

Anderson Benford

Dickson Amea

John Ragi

Nickson Borana.