Wigmen survive second-half scare

THE HELA Wigmen maintained second spot on the Digicel Cup ladder after surviving a second-half scare to beat the Central Dabaris 24-14 in Port Moresby yesterday.
A three-try haul by the Wigmen in the opening 25 minutes saw the 2019 grand finalists lead 18-0 at halftime with the Dabaris outmuscled.
However, the second half saw a different Dabaris outfit who came out firing with centre Junior Gibson scoring an unconverted try to trail 4-18 five minutes after the break.
The Wigmen extended their lead to 24-4 courtesy of a converted try by Stanford Talita who played at second-row. With a bit of luck, Dabaris winger Michael Yanis kicked and re-gathered a grubber to score an unconverted try off a dreadful pass by his teammate Charles Kumbi. Dabaris scored their third try three minutes later through fullback Morea Morea from a set move by halfback Junior Belo on the left edge and a successful conversion saw them shorten the margin to a 10-point ball game.
The Wigmen looked to be under pressure in the last 15 minutes but with poor handling errors by the Dabaris they couldn’t chase down Hela’s lead as the time ran out.
Wigmen coach Charlie Wabo said he was disappointed with his side’s second-half performance.
“I am proud of the boys and pretty happy with the win,” Wabo said.
“However the second-half performance was not what I expected.
“Handling errors and poor defence, those are things something we can’t afford going forward.
“There’s still room for improvement.”