Touch Rugby

Referee clinic on Watom Island

The island LLG kick started its sports competition in April to encourage residents and youths to take part in various codes to stay healthy and fit.

More than 30 participants and officials for the codes of rugby touch 6s and volleyball attended the one-day referee clinic conducted on Thursday May 18.

The Community Development Sector of the Rabaul District Administration conducted the clinic with the assistance of the ENB Rugby Touch Association to assist in upskilling the participants’ knowledge on the laws of the code.

PNG's golden hat trick in touch rugby, Samoa take silver

The 2015 Pacific Games Mixed Team silver medalists completed a hat-trick in 2019 to win the gold medal in the Mixed Team Division for complete dominance of this week’s touch rugby competition.

They have successfully defended their Men’s and Women’s titles from the 2015 Games with the win in Mixed Teams completing their dominance.

They did so in the deciding clash with Samoa, who were defending Mixed Team champions from the 2015 Pacific Games, though they trailed at the end of the first half.

Samoa play PNG for touch gold medal

Fiji will play the Cook Islands for the bronze medal at St Joseph's Field, Faleata.

Today’s semi finals saw PNG convincingly defeating Fiji 8-4 even though the Fijians showed a lot of prospect at a 3-3 draw at halftime.

The host country also finished strong with a 9-5 victory over the Cook Islands.

At the end of the two days of mixed team elimination, PNG tops the charts with Samoa in second place, Cook Islands in third and Fiji in fourth.

Gerehu rugby touch competition deferred

Many teams are yet to register as the games committee decided to postpone the games to the coming weekend.

Game committee member Fritzel Saga said with Christmas around the corner, the committee run a short competition and therefore needs to kick off the match early.

“Teams are interested to participate however, they are yet to secure a space upon registration and therefore we have extended the time for the few teams that have showed interest to register before we proceed,” Fritzel said.

Governor sponsors WNB touch team with 20 000

Touch rugby in West New Britain is popular with a good number of players making the national team for both men and women.

In presenting the money, Muthuvel said he is in close talks with the vice president of Corporate Touch Port Moresby, Dadi Toka Jr and Pilai Sports Director Martin Joffey who have agreed to work together to further develop the code in the province.

Muthuvel also donated balls to the 4 running touch rugby associations in the province - Admiralty, Batas, Gigo and Black Ants.

PNG settle for 7-7 draw with Samoa in touch rugby

Samoa hit an early lead after Peter Hazelman and Beckett Leota scored touch downs to sound a warning to PNG.

A touch down from Bobby Vavona put PNG back in the contest however. Samoa’s Lima Lote extended the lead to 3-1 before half time.

The second half of play saw a flurry of points from both sides. Uari Sarufa from PNG scored twice to level the scores at 3-3.

From this point, touch downs were scored from one of the field to another and about a minute out before play ended, the scores were locked at 6-6.

PNG leads Samoa 2-1 in gold playoff

PNG struck first on the wing through Nadya Taubuso and then hit from the opposite wing thanks to the brilliance of captain Diane Vetu.

Samoa hit back just before the break to get back in the game.

PNG into gold playoff with Samoa

This came after handing out a 17-2 thrashing to the Solomon Islands this morning.

PNG will play Samoa this afternoon for gold. Samoa defeated Cook Islands in the other semi final 9-3.

The bronze medal play off will be between Cook Islands and the Solomon Islands.

The PNG women's touch team will also play for gold today against Samoa. The bronze medal play off will see Kiribati play the Cook Islands.

Solomons suffering 0-9 halftime with PNG

It has been a one sided contest so far as PNG runs in easy points.

Doubles have gone to PNG's William Ken and Bobby Vavona.

The Solomon Islanders were disallowed a touch down which has been their only big moment.

PNG women through to touch finals

Max continued her good form, running in two more touch downs in what was a walk over for her team.

Kiribati were left scoreless and could not find the try line.

The win is PNG’s fourth consecutive win and they are all but assured of a place in the finals,  topping the round robin ladder.