Tumbe climb to third

By ROBINSON LEKA
WAGHI Tumbe climbed a spot to third on the Digicel Cup ladder after they beat Gulf Isou 36-4 in round eight in Minj, Jiwaka, on Sunday.
Tumbe posted five tries to Isou’s one to clinch their fifth-straight win of the season after losing in rounds two and three.
Tumbe skipper and centre Joe Frank told The National yesterday that the win came off the back of their defence.
“Our coach (Baundo Aba) came down hard on us about our defence before the game and we knew that we all had to work hard on getting it right,” he said.
“We knew that if we wanted to move up the ladder, we had to stop Isou from scoring any points against us.
“Unfortunately, they did but we made sure that it was just one try.
“We’ve already identified the problem and everyone pulled together to polish up on some of the mistakes that we usually concede.”
Frank pointed out notable performances from forwards Supa Kokota and Tiger Emere in their win over the weekend with the duo leading their campaign.
“Supa was really good in the front row and with the experience and support of Tiger, the rest of the team just clicked and carried on from there,” he said.
“The control and kicking game of halfback David Joseph was big in how we finished because we wanted to win by a good margin.”
The end of round eight sees Tumbe in third place with 12 points. They are behind Mendi second-placed Mendi Muruks and ladder leaders Lae Tigers.