Defence too strong in Lae rugby

CHEMCARE Defence rugby club displayed a superb defence to hold off Hornibrook NGI Harlequins 17-8 in their second round of the Morobe rugby premier game in Lae, Morobe.
The green machines also triumphed in the under-21 by defeating Harlequins 14-12 while their A grade team beat the Harlequins 7-5.
In the premier division, Defence with the vocal home crowd behind them registered the first after the ball bounced away from the Harlequins players with conversion successful through the boots
Joseph Wamapiri.
The lead was cut down to four when Defence captain Mike Mire was penalised for a high shot on Harlequins Clifford Vali 15 metres near the try.
Elai Lokora converted the penalty to trail 3-7 and with the clock ticking towards half time Defence moved the ball from the scrum towards left winger Junior who beat the would-be tacklers to score.
Successful conversion from Wamapiri gave the home side a lead of 14- 3 going into the break.
Returning from the break, Harlies’ forwards led by Michael Muriki, Ian Gore and John Milba, putting their body on the line resulted in a try scored by Junior Poka to narrow the margin to 8-14 with conversion unsuccessful from Joshua Lokora Jr’s boots.
The Harlequins had many opportunities to score in the second half, however due to a lot of handling errors, they gave the game away to the home side led by captain Mire Warren Teno.
His tireless forward pack put up a solid defence with an outcome of a penalty to put the game beyond Harlies reach to win by nine points 17-8.
The Morobe rugby play offs for the finals starts this weekend.