Hunters knock off Burleigh

THE Papua New Guinea Hunters stretched their unbeaten home recorded this year to 14 wins with a well-deserved 30-20 victory over the Burleigh Bears yesterday.
In front of an estimated 12,000 plus local fans at the National Football Stadium, the Hunters played with a mixture of enterprise and some old fashioned grunt to score a six-tries-to-four win over the former competition leaders in their round 22 clash.
The 10-point loss saw the Bears (33 points) drop to second place while the Hunters (32) remain in third spot with three games to go in the 2016 Intrust Super Cup regular season.
The Redcliffe Dolphins (34) saw off the Easts Tigers 28-22 to move to the top of the table.
The Hunters led 14-10 at halftime and held out the visitors with a good defensive effort in the second 40 minutes to get within two points of the No.1 spot.
Five-eighth Ase Boas may have left six points on the kicking tee but he made up for it with two tries, setting up two more and slotting two conversions and an important 74th minute penalty in windy conditions to be the Hunters best on the day.
His second was a 75m effort in the 52nd minute after intercepting a loose pass and cheekily showing the tongue to a chasing Bears captain Jamal Foagrty before touching down.
Back-rower Timothy Lomai played the entire 80 minutes and put in several damaging runs one of which led to the Hunters final try to nippy dummy half Gahuna Silas in the 61st minute.
Winger Adex Wera scored a double as well and his second four-pointer was a gem with the Simbu man beating opposite Waka Wanahi to a Boas grubber in-goal to score three minutes into the second half.
But it wasn’t all one way traffic as the visitors proved capable hitting back after every Hunters try with a four-pointer of their own.
Prop Paterika Vaivai was a handful crossing twice close to the line while Fogarty and Wanahi also claimed tries.
Hunters 30 (Adex Wera 2, Ase Boas 2, Bland Abavu, Gahuna Silas tries; A Boas 2 con, pen) Bears 20 (Paterika Vaivai 2, Jamal Fogarty, Waka Wanahi tries; J Fogarty 2 con) at the NFS. H/T: 14-10.
Results: Rd 22 – Sat, Aug 6: Cutters 30 TH Seagulls 10, Capras 22 Magpies 24; Sun, Aug 7: Tigers 22 Dolphins 28, Devils 38 WM Seagulls 26, Hunters 30 Bears 20, Pride 20 Blackhawks 22.
Bye: Jets, Falcons.