The David Belo-coached side maintained their winning streak in the pool games and danced through to the finals undefeated, before clamping the Rats in the decider on Friday at the Bava Park, establishing themselves as Central’s 9s kings.
“We worked hard from the two previous years which built us for this game and I give credit to the boys for creating history,”
Belo said after gunning down their opponent from Goilala and receiving K10,000.
“Our preparation was very important to our success and I’m proud of the boys for defending the title.
“It’s rare to win consecutive finals knowing the fact that Central has enormous talent in the game of rugby nines and I’m happy with the team for a wonderful job this year.”
The Koiari men struck early through speedster Johnny Benson, who laid the foundation for their premiership campaign and the 30-minute final.
The Judah John-coached Rats found their rhythm and responded soon after with a four-pointer on the left edge to winger Alex Mano to level the scores at 4-4.
Allan Simbiri steered Gogeas’ ball movement and found Lance Jared and Isaiah Wawo with two quick back-to-back tries in the first ten minutes, but Rats found their own groove soon after to keep the margin to four at the break (14-10).
The second stanza was evenly contested in the opening minutes but the fight Rats put up did not translate to any further points as the Gogeas extended their lead and held on to their title.
Player of the match and flyer Benson scored a double in the second half to complete his grand final hattrick while Simbiri, Henry Jack and Gaisan Peter each scored a try to elevate Gogeas to 31 points.
News source https://www.thenational.com.pg
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