Southern league confirms dates for trials

THE Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League’s Southern Confederation has confirmed dates for its regional trials at the National Football Stadium.
The trials kick off with the Under-14, U16 and U18 school representative fixtures on July 25.
This will be followed by women’s matches from July 30-31 and then the U20 men’s games from Aug 1-2 before the men’s trials from Aug 3- 5.
Players will be picked from the trials to represent the Southern Confederate at the PNGRFL national championships in Port Moresby.
The National Schools Rugby League championship will be from Sept 11-20; open women’s titles on Sept 24 and the U20s and open men’s titles from Aug 31 to Sept 1.
Southern Confederate director Gwaibo Mairi, pictured, said registered players and officials were eligible to participate in the trails.
The Southern Confederate has warned affiliates not to fill unregistered players and officials as this would affect their participation at the trials and championships.
Mairi confirmed 26 affiliates would participate in the Southern trails but the issue of player registrations would likely decide how many teams actually played.
“We are still getting our documents together for player registrations we’ll have a clearer picture by the end of the week,” Mairi said.
The dead line for registration was June 31.
The Moresby South and Kiunga leagues are set to run their trails to select their teams while Port Moresby is expected to start their selection process for training squads this week.