Muruks, Lahanis win

SBS Mendi Muruks booked the first bemobile Cup grand final berth with an impressive 18-6 major semi-final win over defending premiers Agmark Guria in Lae yesterday before a packed crowd of more than 8,000.
In the minor semi-final Bintangor Lahanis edged  out Toyota Mioks 14-8 to continue their campaign next weekend.
The Lahanis will meet Guria to decide the other grand finalists.
The matches were played in a peaceful atmosphere which saw well-behaved   huge crowd enjoying the both matches in true sports spirit. 
The Muruks scored three converted tries to one.
The opener came from the handiwork of halves Kili Kewa and Ate Bina Wabo who executed well to send hard running forward Roy Kela under the uprights.
Kewa converted to take an early 6-0 lead.
Muruks got much support from their die-hard supporters when they kept pressure through blockbusting forwards captain Joseph Omae, Norbert Kembo, Kela and Wer Mark.
Omae had an inspirational day with backing from his Unitech school mate Kembo.
Guria’s Larsen Marabe, Rodney Pora, Sigfred Gende, Dion Aiye, Kevin Frank and Pidi Togap tried hard but were kept in their own turf for the first 20 minutes.
In the second stanza, Guria’s kicker Aiye kicked a high bomb that was fumbled by fullback Roderick Puname and Boas Ruru grabbed it to dive over in the 60th minute.
 Aiye levelled the score with the conversion.
From then on, the tempo was high from both teams to add points to their score sheet.
Muruks used their backliners Kili, Wabo, Baine, Wesley Benny and Bobby Akopa who completed their sets of sixes.
It was Lae league Bulldogs club connection of Kela, Wabo and Baine  with set plays that  saw Baine show a brilliant dummy from 15m before crossing over to score a converted try adjacent to the posts to lead 12-6.
Guria made several silly ball handling errors that gave away Muruks another try to winger Travis Waninara who fended of several defenders and  stepped towards the uprights for Kili to collect the extras and  put the Southern Highlanders further on 18-6 with 12 minutes to go.
Guria retaliated to score through Channel Aquila, Tongap, Pora and Aiye who gave their best shots but Muruks denied them any more points and pressured them into dropping the ball.
Guria should blame themselves for their  mistakes and should regather before facing the  Lahanis next week.