The PNG Hunters defeated the Northern Pride 26-10 at the National Football Stadium in Round 9 in a match where stand-in centre Willie Minoga scored two tries and caused havoc to the opposition defence.
As always, the home team started the match with high energy and intensity as their forwards (led by David Loko, Wellington Albert and Henry Noki) made good runs.
Minoga scored his first try within three minutes of the game starting. Half Ase Boas converted the try to give the home side a 6-0 early advantage.
The Hunters then scored again soon after, with a Boas dummy play from a scrum. He could not convert his own try, but the home side were still able to take a handy 10-0 lead into the halftime break.
The Hunters extended their lead by two points at the start of the second half after the Pride gave up penalty in front and Boas again was successful with the kick.
However, the visitors hit back soon after thanks to winger Marcus Jensen who crossed over the line. After a slow start, the visitors had worked their way back into the game and polished up both their attack and defence.
Despite this, the home side were able to push their lead out further when Minoga scored his second try 20 minutes until fulltime.
While the crowd favourite was strong for his side – he could find himself in hot water with the judiciary after being penalised for a dangerous tackle in the second half.
Boas converted the try and followed that up by kicking another penalty goal shortly after to extend the margin to 20-4.
The visitors scored again though veteran Colin Wilkie who was playing at hooker, but it was too little too late for a comeback.
Hunters rake Wartovo Puara scored a four-pointer of his own to round-out the try scoring for the day, again producing a dummy half play.
Boas kicked his fifth goal of the evening to seal the solid win.
See the full scoring details and final team line-ups for this game via QRL Live
PNG HUNTERS 26 (Willie Minoga 2, Ase Boas, Wartovo Puara tries; Ase Boas 5 goals) def NORTHERN PRIDE 10 (Marcus Jensen, Colin Wilkie tries; Jordan Biondi-Odo goal) at National Football Stadium, Port Moresby.
