Schools league pre-season on

THE National Capital District schools rugby league pre-season competition kicks off next month, an official said.
NCD schools rugby league coordinator Joseph Dongari told The National yesterday that last year there had been more 50 primary school teams and 20 high school sides (both male and female) that initially registered but those numbers whittled away because many could not complete the registration fees as well as a lack of venues to stage games.
“Venues and fields to run our games remain the biggest challenge but we’ll keep trying and hopefully we’ll have enough fields to cater for all the divisions and teams,” Dongari said.
The high schools would compete in the U18 division while primary schools would compete in the U16s and U12s.
Dongari said Central high schools would be accommodated in the NCD competition.
The competition will run over months (March-July).
“We haven’t secured fields yet but we have made requests to venue owners and managers and we’re hoping they will respond favourably.
“Last year we used the field at Konedobu (Town) and then transferred to Unagi Oval (Gordon) and Kaugere but this time we want to confirm one location.
The NCD schools competition is part of the PNGRFL’s national schools programme which was launched in 2017.
Dongari said representative from schools could come to the National Football Stadium on Friday to get details on the competition.