Lepa calls off Bougainville, Wewak based challenges

 THE Coca-Cola Ipatas Cup Challenge in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville was called off due to a lack of information being exchanged between the Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League and CCIC officials on the ground.

Cup chief executive officer Timothy Lepa revealed this at Murray Barracks on Saturday during the launching of the Southern challenge.

“I have tried my best to get in touch with the directors in PNGRFL office, who are in charge of rugby league in Bougainville, to let us know about the availability of the affiliated clubs but nothing was forthcoming so we called off the Bougainville challenge,” Lepa said

Lepa said the Ipatas Cup board had also cancelled the Namatanai Challenge due to similar issues but that did not mean there would not be any cup challenges in the New Guinea Islands in Kimbe, West New Britain, which will host its games from March 3-5. Lepa said the Momase Challenge that scheduled to be held in Wewak, East Sepik, was moved back to Lae because most of the teams there had not registered.

“We have a good number of teams from Madang, Ramu, Kanaintu and Lae who are gearing up for the challenge in Lae this weekend,” he said.