Hunters grind out win

PNG SP Hunters recorded their second win of the season as they beat the Sunshine Coast Falcons 22-10 in the Hostplus Cup round 3 match on Saturday.
The Paul Aiton-coached side overcome a determined Falcons side who led 10-6 with 15 minutes remaining.
The Hunters then rattled off two tries in the space of as many minutes to take the game away from the visitors.
Second gamer Robert Mathias threaded a pass in traffic in 66th minute to see winger Brandon Nima in space before he off-loaded to centre Clent Lama on the inside who scored under the uprights which got the home side back in front.
The centre-cum-second-rower, Mathias scored one himself from the set after the restart in the 68th minute when he sliced through the line after taking a pass from five-eighth Sakias Komati and ran 30-metres down the left edge and leaving a covering Falcons No.1 Zachariah Miles stranded with a dummy to touch down under the uprights. Lama potted the conversion for the Hunters to be 18-10.
Kumuls front-rower Valentine Richard put the cherry on the cake when he barged over from dummy-half in the 78th minute after leaving the field in the 15th minute with what looked like a serious shoulder injury.
The SP Brewery-sponsored side led 6-4 at half-time. Hunters opening try was scored by Nima in the 25th minute.
Falcons scored back-to-back tries through back-rower Thallon Peters and Kane Jackson in the 29th and 49th minutes which were both off cross-field kicks and looked set to wrestle a win on the road before the home side shifted gears.
Aiton said the performance by his men only showed a glimpse of how best they could be and that the best was yet to come.
“The boys are getting it, we made errors in the game but I think this was just a glimpse of how best they can be,” Aiton said.
“We had a player who was sent to the sin bin, we were down to 12 men and we had to defend a lot in the first-half and in the second-half but the faith and the determination the boys had in the game, I’m just proud of them.
“We made it hard for ourselves with the amount of errors. Coming in this game, we wanted to achieve few goals and one of them was to cut the penalties and I think we’ve achieved that. We just have to cut our errors that’s all.”
PNG Hunters 22 (Brandon Nima, Clent Lama, Robert Mathias, Valentine Richard tries; C Lama 3 con) SC Falcons 10 (Thallon Peters, Kane Jackson tries; Cody Hunter con) at NFS. H/T: 10-6 (Hunters).