Visiting Mendi Muruks hand Vipers their first loss

THE Mendi Muruks handed the Port Moresby Vipers their first loss of the Digicel Cup season after the visitors claimed a 12-6 win at Sir John Guise Stadium on Saturday.
A man-of-the-match performance by Muruks fullback Dickson Pipi and physicality of their forwards led by Stanton Albert and Hobert Koim allowed the Muruks to come out on top.
The home side were the first to score through fullback Brandon Gotuno and a successful conversion by Ase Boas saw them lead 6-0 in the 4th minute.
On the back of three consecutive penalties, the Muruks spent almost 15 minutes in the Vipers’ territory.
After several failed attempts, the Jack Kereme-coached side finally broke the Vipers defence in the 20th minute through some individual brilliance by winger Bob Tenza who scored on the left flank.
The scores were locked at 6-6 at halftime.
The Muruks came out firing early on in the second half which saw centre Jope Honk score off a Dickson Pipi line-break for a 12-6 lead in the 48th minute.
The home side tried to create space for their backs by playing up-tempo football and tried to match the physicality of the Muruks with some hard running and tackles by veteran Enoch Maki, Peter Numapo and Ade Kawa.
But the Muruks didn’t back off as Albert, Koim, Daniel Tapol and Mark Mexico maintained their intensity up the middle which set the platform for backs Pipi, Leon Undupia and Tenza to make good metres.
One of the highlight of the games was in the 62nd minute when Muruks winger Undupia launched himself at former Papua New Guinea Kumul Thompson Tete in a bid to put in a big hit.
The Vipers had plenty of possession in the dying stages of the game but couldn’t level the scores.