Ipatas Cup launched in Hela

The Coca Cola Ipatas Cup match in Hela Province was officially launched over the weekend at Kekeno Oval in Koroba with a huge a number people coming from all parts of the Hela Province to support their home teams.
According to the CCIC coordinator for the Hela Province Mr David Tarali, the games were due to start on Friday but due to the Ipatas Cup officials not turning up on time for the games, it was postponed to Saturday.
“We were suppose to play the round one (1) games on Friday but due to the delay, round one(1) and round (2) were all played on Saturday without any issues with the teams that participated” .
“A total eight (8) local teams from all over Hela Province took part in this competition and the support they get from their rugby fans here just enormous”.
Mr Tarali said the CCIC competition is having a great impact on lives of people of Hela, despite reports about tribal and many other issues.
He said they will also have some under competitions happening at Hela apart from the CCIC.
“We will also have the Belden Namha Cup happening over the weekend, as much as possible we want to keep the youths busy with such sporting activities so they don’t get themselves into trouble”.
Mr Tarali also thanked the Police at Koroba for keeping things in order during the first game.
“The police at Koroba did a splendid job, they kept drunkards out of the field and their presence made sure there wasn’t any disturbance or conflicts among the supporters”.
He said this was only the first game but and crowd turnout was good and they also behaved and he was hoping this will continue in the next upcoming competitions.