Lae schools comp starts

By TALU WINI, PNGUOT STUDENT
THE Lae Schools Rugby League competition kicked off its 2024 matches on Saturday at the Lae Secondary School Oval, says PNG NRL Bid manager Charley Clyde Tikaro.
Schools taking part in the competition are Omili, Buimo Road, Igam, St Paul’s, Haikos and Markham Road primary schools, including secondary schools Lae, Bugandi, Bumayong and Malang Technical school.
A development squad will be selected during the competition to represent Lae in the national championship that will be hosted in Goroka, Eastern Highlands.
“Those who are selected from the school teams will be put into a weekly training programme for the next three months,” Tikaro said.
“They will form an elite team to play national championship in Goroka in July for U19 and open girls teams. Unfortunately, for U15 and U17 will not take part in Goroka this year but hopefully next year.
“After the national championship competition in Goroka, they will form the elite squad for the country and then they will go down to play in New South Wales in Australia and Fiji.
“It is the pathway to PNG NRL Bid and in the next ten years, this competition will be the pathway to the Digicel ExxonMobil Cup competition.
“This school rugby competition had been operating for the last twenty years and it is the platform that we are providing for the students who have the desire to pursue their rugby league career,” he said.
Tikaro said that this year was quite different from all other years because they were currently doing selections for a thirty-man squad for each divisions for Under-15, U17 and U19, and also for open girls’ teams.
“Getting students into the national squad is the way we will market our players to Australia and other countries, so when the time for PNG to become the 18th NRL team, we will have enough talented players to represent us in NRL,” Tikaro said.
He said Kokopo, Goroka and Mt Hagen would select one team each will Port Moresby will field two teams to take part in national championship in Goroka.