Panthers belt Sisters 30-16

PAGA Panthers overcame Sisters 30-16 in round two of the Port Moresby Women’s Rugby League competition at the National Football Stadium’s Oval 2 on Friday.
The Panthers, led by captain Cathy Neap, dominated most of the 40 minutes of play to take an insurmountable 30-4 lead before the Sisters found their feet in the final five minutes to score three unconverted tries and give the felines a fright.
Paga’s centre Catherine Anjo was the star of the afternoon with a hat-trick of tries — two in the first half and another in the second stanza.  The women played their match in the presence of the PNG Hunters, who were training at the main venue before flying out to Brisbane the following day for their Queensland Cup match against the Burleigh Bears this afternoon.
The Panthers were first to score when fullback Jacklyn Sele wrong-footed the defence to cross under the uprights.
Sisters’ dummy-half Matex Pala reduced the deficit to two with an unconverted try to trail 6-4.
Anjo scored back-to-back tries to give her side a 16-4 lead heading into halftime. The Panthers dominated the opening minutes of the second half, with five-eighth Waikele John muscling her way past two defenders to push the lead out to 22-4.
Angela Parao and Anjo scored unconverted tries to bring the scores to a comfortable 30-4 with five minutes remaining.
Sisters finally woke up in the last quarter, with halfback Joyce Wai scoring a try which lock Natasha Ongapa converted to trail 30-10. Pala scored picked up her second on the stroke of full time to reduce the margin to 14 points.