PNG Hunters start season with impressive win over South Logan Magpies

The SP Hunters have started the season in emphatic fashion racking up 40 points against a hapless South’s Logan at Davies Park today.

Starting the game with 8 debutants the Hunters took time to adjust, conceding first points after a mix up at the back between new fullback Amean and Goma, letting a bomb bounce for South’s to pounce upon to score and convert in the opening 5 minutes taking a 6 nil lead.

The SP Hunters bounced back quickly, surging up field through the heart of the Logan defence before a smart offload by Puara set up Korave to score next to the posts to level the scores.

Play seesawed between the 2 sides with Logan dominating possession to dive under the posts from dummy half to score and convert 20 minutes into the match.

From there it was all the Hunters, with heavy defence from the causing turnovers and giving more possession to the talented PNG team.

The next try was simply magic from the Hunters with several offloads in traffic before Amean dived over untouched in the corner. Laka converted from the sideline to level the scores at 12 all.

The Hunters were playing with confidence and again burst down the right side running the ball on the 5th tackle in their own half. Puara offloaded to a flying Teteh who made a searching run up field before offloading to Laka who turned it inside to Abavu to score the first of his two tries for the match under the posts to take the lead 18 to 12 with 12 minutes left in the half. The Hunters weren’t finished with however with a scrum packing down right on full time and a smart inside ball from Eliab to a determined Teteh, twisting and turning and beating several defenders to score in a display of blistering speed, strength and determination.

The Hunters took the lead into the break 22 to 12 over a South’s Logan side, which seemed unable to stop the constant attacking raids from the Hunters.

The Hunters started the second half in similar fashion maintaining possession with Eliab stepping to the fore after impressive lead up work by his inside men to beat two defenders and race 30 metres to score in the corner. Eliab showed he is NRL material with sheer size, pace and agility making him a handful for the opposition and a constant threat throughout the match.

The game was slipping away for South’s Logan as they took the odds to a short kickoff restart, regathering and putting them on the attack, but the strong goal line defence from the Hunters caused a turnover to give possession again back to the visiting team.

It was all the Hunters as they showed a slick set of hands through the backline for Abavu to score his second out wide. The conversion was missed however the game had slipped away from South’s at 32 to 12 only 10 minutes into the second half.

The Hunters seemed to be able to break the Logan defence at will with smart work by an unstoppable Ottio before another ensuing attacking raid from Teteh and a no look pass put Lapua over in the corner for his first try in the Intrust Super cup for the Hunters.

Scrappy play dominated the next stage of the match with a mountain of possession to South’s eventually seeing Logan’s best player Mitch Garbutt stretch out and score under the posts to bring the score back to 36 to 18 and some respectability for Logan, who dominated possession and territory but could not crack the tight heavy defence of the Hunters.

The last statement came from Teteh who charged down a kick, regarthered and raced 70 metres to take the fulltime score to 40 to 18 to the Hunters.

Teteh was brilliant in attack and defence and showed his time spent with the Rabbitohs in the off-season has reaped rewards for the Hunters this season. Puara was at his scheming best with head coach Michael Marum switching the wily rake to lock forward and a ball distributer at stages throughout the match.

Eye catching performances from Eliab, Ottio, Amean, Maki and Korave has fans looking forward to another exciting season of SP Hunters football.

Head Coach Michael Marum, while happy with the performance and a first up win said there was plenty of room for improvement and the team had to improve on ball possession and the basics to be able to compete with the best teams in the competition.

The SP Hunters will now head back to Kokopo and eagerly await the Redcliffe Dolphins for their opening home match of the season this Sunday 15th March at Kalabond Stadium in Kokopo with kick-off at 2.30pm.

Tickets are on sale at Agmark Hardware in Kokopo from Monday 9th March.