Ipatas Cup league to begin in February

By DANIEL GERSON
IPATAS Cup boss Timothy Lepa anounced the calendar for the country’s biggest off-season rugby league competition this week.
It will start in February with eight pools set for the showdown.
Northern region starts their qualifying matches from Feb 10-12 with centres Madang and Lae also hosting the Eastern Highlands pool games from Feb 17-19.
Port Moresby will see the clubs battle it out for a spot to represent the Southern Zone along with the Jiwaka and Western Highlands pools from Feb 24-26 in Mt Hagen.
Enga and Southern Highlands qualifying matches will be staged in Wabag from March 2-4.
For the Chimbu pool, teams will play in Lae while the New Guinea Islands pool is slated for Kokopo in East New Britain from March 9-11.
The top two teams from each pool will assemble in Wabag at Johnson Siki Oval for the first elimination games on March 30 through to April 1.
The second round of knockout games will be played in Lae and one winner from each of the eight pools will go through the preliminary finals series and the grand finalists will be determined from those games.
The competition has once again secured the support of Coca-Cola Amatil PNG and Enga governor and patron Peter Ipatas with other sponsors NGCB PNG, Lae Biscuit Co, Digicel PNG, MRDC, Barrick, SBSL PNG,  Nau FM and Yumi FM with the endorsement of PNGRFL.