Tumbe hold Wigmen to draw, end Hela’s finals hopes

By JACK AMI
THE Hela Wigmen bowed out of the Digicel Cup with a 14-14 draw with the Garry Lo-led Waghi Tumbe in the final round of the Digicel Cup regular season at the National Football Stadium yesterday.
The Wigmen entered the game needing to win to have a chance of making the finals and played like desparate men but the Tumbe were able to force the draw.
The Hela side finished in sixth spot out of 10 sides in the competition.
The Enga Mioks, who finished in number one spot after their 34-24 win over the Chimbu Warrriors the day before will get K20,000.
The rest of the top five are Agmark Gurias, Tumbe, Lae Tigers and Goroka Lahanis.
The Mioks are on a bye in the first round of the playoffs as the second plays third (Gurias v Tumbe) in the qualfying final and fourth plays fifth (Tigers v Lahanis) in the elimination final.
The Wigmen led 14-6 at halftime but failed to add any more points in the second stanza and allowed the Tumbe to draw level ending their finals hopes.
Elvis Aiyako, Daniel Tapol and D Baluba scored the Hela’s tries in the opening 40 minutes with Enoch Kewa managing just one conversion.
Tumbe got their six points from a converted try to Micah Pia.
Tumbe’s Koi Paul crossed twice to save his side from a loss but it was the Wigmen’s inability to come up with a match-winning play when it mattered the most that was disappointing.
Tumbe coach Francis Ray would not be happy with his side’s error count heading into Sunday’s qualifying final against the Guras.
But he has an ace up his sleeve with fullback Garry Lo looking in ominous form.
Tumbe centres Joe Frank, Emmanuel Waine, halves Francis Sam and Israel Balid all looked dangerous with ball in hand forwards Daniel Pai, Frank Kagai, Andrew Ipi and captain Sipa Korken proved they could match it with Hela’s halves Enoch Kewa, Jerry Teme, centres Melvin Paul, Stanford Talita and fullback Elvis Ayako.