Don’t let your guard down

Greetings to all our rugby league family and welcome to our 19th edition of Fulltime Reserve, a weekly column to discuss all matters rugby league in our favourite newspaper The National.
This week, the pandemic controller, acting on the advice of Papua New Guinea’s medical experts, has made the decision to ease some of the restrictions.
However, in their ongoing efforts to enforce the “new normal” protocols to ensure public safety, the controller has re-enforced a number of existing directives to control public mobility and social gatherings.
The Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League acknowledges the great work the controller and his team continue to undertake to manage the pandemic.
The fact that PNG has not experienced the same level of public health crisis faced by other nations is testament to their ongoing efforts.
The PNG rugby league family stands together with the government to call for collective vigilance as we adjust to the new-normal.
The PNGRFL will ensure that the sport continues to enforce the Banis Protocols as our “new-normal” guidelines and we will not tolerate complacency from our members.
The ongoing restrictions however, will continue to greatly impact the delivery of both our domestic and international rugby league programs. On the domestic front, the Digicel Cup will continue to be played under the strict Banis Protocols guidelines recently put in place until further notice.
The PNGRFL will also work with the authorities to ensure that some of our local affiliates commence their competitions soon under our revised guidelines which we will adopt to become our “new-normal”.
There continues to be uncertainty around the international calendar due to the ongoing international travel restrictions put in place by all nations. As a result, the International Rugby League and the Asia Pacific Rugby League Confederation have decided that a final decision on all international matches for 2020 will be made by the end of August 2020.
The 2021 Rugby League World Cup in England is on schedule to go ahead and the PNGRFL is working with its local and international partners to explore various options to ensure both the PNG LNG Kumuls and the Oil Search PNG Orchids prepare well for the world cup.
The PNGRFL is also working closely with the Queensland Rugby League and our local and international partners to look at various options for the SP PNG Hunters participation in the 2021 Intrust Super Cup season in the event that the current scenario continues into next year.
We will update all our rugby league stakeholders on all these developments.
We can also be contacted via [email protected] to provide feedback on issues covered in this column weekly or ask questions on matters that you would like us to discuss.
Until next week, may the grace, love and care of our Good Lord be with you.

Cheers,
Sandis