Spiders wins Lae 9s

By LARRY ANDREW
THE Spiders rugby league club claimed back-to-back 9s titles after beating Blue Heelers 28-10 in the Lae Snax 9s final.
The Lae leg of the Snax 9s, which is in its fourth year, saw 20 teams battling out for the prizemoney and a chance for their players to be considered for the 2017 Lae Snax Tigers.
In the third place playoff, Highway Convicts beat Morobe Chiefs (1) 38-26 while the Spiders defeated Magani 8-6 in the women’s exhibition match.
The East Taraka-based team, which has been backed by the Lae Biscuit Company since the mid-1980s, had PNG Hunters utility Warren Glare helping out.
They beat Highway Convicts 42-8 in the first major semifinal before locking horns with the Blue Heelers, who had earlier tamed the Morobe Chiefs (1) 20-14 in the second semifinal.
The Spiders were first on the board when Billy Las scored out wide an unconverted try.
However the men-in-blue hit back with some smart play, which saw the pacey Jacky Winas put his side on level terms at 4-4.
The lead changed again with the Spiders rattling off two more tries for a 16-4 advantage at the break.
The men-in-black continued their try-scoring ways in the second-half, adding two converted tries while Winas scored picked up his second for a 28-10 finish in favour of the Spiders.
The champions pocketed K6000, with the runners-up getting K4000. Highway Convicts walked away with K2000 in third place and Morobe Chiefs (1) settled for K1000 in fourth.
Spiders fullback Las was named the man-of-the-match and received K500 and a trophy.
For the women’s fixture, the Spiders got K500 and Magani K300.