Lahanis win and stick to top spot
By PETER PIA and SAMPSON BONAI
BINTANGOR Lahanis
yesterday firmly secured their top spot on the SP Cup competition
ladder after defeating host LBC Bombers 32-22 at Lae Rugby League
Oval
Second-placed Brian Bell Bulldogs surrendered their spot to sister
team, Wari Vele Raiders after their loss to Pagini Warriors 18-16.
Elsewhere, Agmark Guria drew with Enga Mioks 10-10 at Porgera.
The Lahanis are now clear leaders with 17 points followed by
Raiders 16, Bulldogs 15, Agmark Rabaul Gurias 14, Toyota Mioks 13,
Bombers 8, Eagles 8 and Warriors on 3 points.
Elated Lahanis coach Peter Dange was impressed with the win and
said they over come their errors from their 30-26 loss to Agmark
Gurias two weeks ago by focusing on the game and completing their
set of six.
Bombers coach Boga Tau blamed their loss on lack of ball security.
"We did not complete our set of six which cost the game for us
despite coming close to winning the game. We will focus on
improving on our errors during training this week before we had
off to Rabaul to meet the Gurias this weekend," Tau said.
Lahanis scored first after five-eighth Stanley Goso chipped and
left winger Minaho Moliki touched down near the up rights. Centre
Anton Kui raised the flags to take an early 6-0.
Bombers led by captain John Milba, Titus Maima, Andrew Baine,
Dusty Mockley were in the thick of action up front by putting
their bodies on the lines to create opportunities for their
backline to run through to score.
Nokondis capitalised on that lapse and flowed the ball around
before lock forward Singfred Gende went for the line to put their
nose in front 10-0.
Bombers back rower Jerry Kutz made a 50-metre run and fended off
several defenders before he offloaded to Andrew Baine for a
converted try to trail 6-10.
Bombers levelled the score 10-10 seconds before the break through
sneaky half-back Nime Kapo.
The home team came strong in the second stanza led by their heavy
forwards Kutz. Mockley, Maima and Mackey.
Lahanis kept changing their game plan and used their fast back
liners like man-of the match Anton Kui, Bafinu Ilai, and forwards
Nicko Slain and Sigfred Gende to put Kui and Slain successively
over the tryline for the 18-10 lead.
Bombers replied through Eki Ene from dummy and at the corner to
trail 14-18.
The visitors scored through Kapil and Kui's collected the extras
with a penalty goal to give them 26-14 lead before Kui intercepted
Kaupa's pass to score a converted try to lead 32-14.
Benson Joel and Samson Ninge scored a try each in the dying
minutes of to go down 32-22.
