Ipatas Cup defy odds to launch final series

DESPITE having a disrupted competition this year, Coca-Cola Ipatas Cup organisers have done their best to keep the completion on, competition manager Sam Koi says.
Koi said this during a media conference yesterday in Lae to launch the CCIC final series that will see four teams battle for the K50,000 prize money on offer.
The four teams in the finals series are: Western End — Strickland Raiders of Hela, Kroton East West Ninjas from Western Highlands; Eastern End — Morobe Pride representing Morobe and NSS Northern Pride from Jiwaka.
The top two from each end will face off on Saturday and the winners will meet in the final on Sunday.
The losers will play-off for third place as the curtain raiser to the final.
He acknowledged patron and Enga Governor Sir Peter Ipatas for his support of the offseason rugby league competition.
“It’s been tough, we had to cancel lot of provinces that actually participated in the competition,” he said.
“The competition this year was not only tough but we had a lot of support with many teams participating.
“With the eight provinces not participating we still had 104 teams from the six provinces.”
Koi said while the standard of rugby league was good it had been a challenge for organisers and officials to stage games.
“It was challenging for us organisers to manage not only the teams but the competition itself, supporters and everything comes with the tournament.
“The four teams that made it this far to the finals leading up to the grandfinal are teams that are made up of provinces along the Highlands Highway. Unfortunately we couldn’t go to New Guinea Islands and Southern region because of Covid-19.”
Koi said K100,000 had been set for the men’s competition and K15,000 for the women’s competition respectively.