Homeless Vipers face tough ask to retain title The National, Wednesday March 26th, 2014 REIGNING Digicel Cup rugby league champions Port Moresby Vipers have no home ground and a core of their winning team have left. The idea of playing all matches away is a daunting ask. All teams have become accustomed to winning at home because it is hard to win away. The Vipers brought home great memories when they beat the Goroka Lahanis in the grand final last year. With just over two weeks before their opening match, the Vipers have a huge job ahead of them to defend their title. With the departure of inspirational skipper Larsen Marabe to Whitehaven in the English Championship, playmaker Israel Eliab, winger Garry Lo, back-rower Adam Korave, lock Sebastian Pandia and prop Timothy Lomai to the PNG Hunters in the Queensland Cup, coach Leonard Tarum has huge shoes to fill. Tarum agreed the players who will have to fill the void would have to be very good. He said they had not gone outside the Port Moresby Rugby League to look for players who wanted to take the next step up. “I’m confident that the ones that we have identified will be competitive among the regulars who are all still fighting to make the cut,” Tarum said. “We have gone through an exhaustive preparation with several trial matches and the players are raring to go. “We have 26 players, which the management will cut to 21 to use for this season. “The names should be finalised this week for us to have at least two weeks to work on before our opening match on April 13.” Tarum said the PNGRFL coaches accreditation course in Kokopo had been a huge step up as it had refreshed their ideas on the game and given them new ways to better manage
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 02:03:46 +0000
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