Lae Snax Tigers claimed their fourth premiership title of the Digicel Cup Competition grand final after defeating JPG Waghi Tumbe 16-10 under a capacity crowd in Port Moresby yesterday.
All the points of the entire contest were scored in the first half while both teams struggled to score in the second stanza with many missed opportunities going each way.
This was the Tigers fourth premiership title win out of five grand final appearances under super coach, Stanley Tepend.
The Digicel Cup grand final was officially kicked off by Prime Minister and a passionate rugby league man himself, James Marape in front of over 10,000 loyal rugby league fans and supporters who packed the National Football Stadium.
The Stanley Tepend coached Tigers outfit always had that ‘favorites’ tag on them coming into the contest given their outstanding winning track records since 2016.
With only minutes into the contest, Tigers quickly got on the front foot when Kimbe off-season recruit Lynol Molpoyo showing his class with explosive speed exposing Tumbe’s right edge defense to set up former PNG Pukpuk 7s flyer Max Vali to streak away for Tigers opening try.
Tumbe on counterattack tried to pin down Tigers in their own half defensively until Molpoyo broke loose again and ran almost 70m to score on the left corner.
Jammie Mavoko missed the kick from the sideline leaving the score at 10-Nil in Tigers favour.
Tumbe squandered a number opportunities through ill ball security allowing Tigers to capitalize when No.9 Jerry Teme from dummy half dived over to score with Mavoko adding the extras to take a commanding lead at 16-nil.
Tumbe not to be outdone quickly regrouped in the last quarter of the first with half back of the year, David Joseph stepping up to weave a bit of magic setting form centre Valentine Wamdi to push his big frame over the line with a Tigers hand forcing the ball lose.
Tumbe reacted quickly and pounced on the loose ball to claim a try and get Tumbe back into the contest.
Tumbe were able to maintain momentum for the balance of the first half resulting in Wamdi exploiting the Tigers left edge defense to score an unconverted try for a 16 to 10 halftime score line.
The brutal encounter intensified in the second half with both teams stepping up on both defense and attack resulting in a lot discrepancies in the game especially drop balls and penalties that kept both teams scoreless for the entire half.
For Tumbe they had a number of good scoring opportunities inside Tigers half to force the game into extra time but poor ball control had forced their downfall.
Tigers did manage to hang onto the lead until fulltime to claim the fourth title from five grand final appearances.
Tiger’s fullback Sanny Wabo was outstanding and deserved to be named the man-of-the-match.