Schools’ comp dates set

THE National Schools Rugby League confederation and national championships calendar has been announced with the New Guinea Islands (NGI) to kick off its trials at Kokopo’s Kalabond Oval on Friday.
Dr Benedict Yaru, chairman of the Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited-sponsored league, said yesterday that trials for the Highlands, Northern and Southern confederations would be held on the following weekend.
He said trials for Under-14, U16 and U18 boys, and U18 girls in each confederation would run for two days.
“For the NGI trials, there will be two select sides from Rabaul and West New Britain taking part across the four divisions on Friday,” Yaru said.
“The finals will be held the next day.
“I urge all parents and students to come to Kalabond Oval and cheer on the youngsters.”
He said the confederations would select representative sides in all four divisions for the national championships which would be held in Port Moresby from Sept 20-23.
“On Sept 20, the U14 select sides from the confederations will play each other and the finals will be held on the same day,” Dr Yaru said.
“A squad of 20 U14 players, a coach, trainer and manager will be selected, and they will attend an elite training camp with Michael Marum the next day.
“While the U14s the camp, the U16s will compete and on Sept 22, a select side will attend the elite training camp and the same continues with the U18s till Sept 23.”
Stanley Hondina, chief executive of the sport’s national governing body, said they would monitor the selected players from the championships in their development going forward.
Hondina said the process would continue to improve each year.