World Cup tour to start in Lae

Sports

By SAMPSON BONAI
MOROBE is prepared to receive the prestigious Rugby League World Cup trophy next week.
The Paul Barriere Trophy is set to visit provincial capital Lae as well as the Wau and Bulolo districts — where rugby league was first played in the 1930s.
Northern Confederation director Russ Kaupa said they had worked with all the stakeholders to finalise a colourful programme to receive the World Cup in Lae.
“We have finalised an official programme after liaising with the official sponsor Oil Search to formally receive the cup at Nadzab Airport on Monday and take it on a motorcade to Lae,” Kaupa said.
“We will have another meeting with the official sponsors Oil Search this week to finalise the itinerary to include Wau and Bulolo as well,” he said.
The programme involves all the important stakeholders such as political leaders, disciplinary forces, schools and former Lae-based PNG Kumul players.
Kaupa said the plane carrying the cup would be hosed down at Nadzab and all the welcoming formalities would start there.
The World Cup will be placed on a vehicle and a motorcade would travel to Lae for the official welcoming ceremony.
Kaupa said the trophy would stay overnight in Lae before being taken to Bulolo by air the following day and the official programme would take place at the birth place of rugby league in Wau.
The cup will then be brought back to Lae on the same day for before being handed back to Oil Search representatives for the next leg of its national tour.
Kaupa thanked Oil Search for sponsoring the tour of the Rugby League World Cup trophy around the country and said the initiative had been well received by rugby league fraternity in PNG.
“I thank Oil Search for taking the lead to sponsor the tour of the World Cup and urge everyone to appreciate this once in a life time privilege and turn up in numbers to take part in the official programmes being organised at various locations around Lae,” Kaupa said.
A welcoming ceremony has been drawn up by a local organising committee in the historical birth place of the sport in PNG when the Paul Barrirer trophy arrives in Wau.
The Wau local organising committee deputy chairman Wayang Kawa thanked the official sponsor for sponsoring the tour of the trophy around PNG and Harmony Gold for co-sponsoring the Wau-Bulolo leg of the tour.
“The local organising has worked tirelessly to put together a programme that involves the entire community in the historical towns of Wau and Bulolo to welcome the cup when it touches down at Bulolo airport,” Kawa said.
“Wau and Bulolo towns were the historical birth place of rugby league in PNG and we thank all the sponsors for including the two historical towns in the official tour of the World Cup around PNG.”