2023 Pacific Championships Finals: Teams and Game Day

[The Greenhouse]

72nd min TRY NEW ZEALAND to Griffin Neame. Right up the middle, embarrassing for the Kangaroos! Incredible try... due to the soft defence from Australia. Soft, soft, soft. Fantastic for the young bloke. The Kangaroos cannot come back from this now. Converted Isaako. New Zealand has won the Pacific Cup.

New Zealand 30-0

[RedRaider]

Good to see Timoko playing so well on the left. He is playing very well. Dylan Edwards has made a lot of errors in this match. the Kiwi's are playing with much more enthusiasm than Australia. Now Hynes with a bad one on one miss and NZ over under the sticks. It will be 30 blot with less than 10 minutes to play.

[BJ]

Nicho Hynes! What a memorable bench player for NSW and Australia.

[-PJ-]

Hand that jersey back Nicho..

That was soft.

[PerthRaider86]

Whos the Kiwi coach???? Maybe we can get him in Canberra

[The Greenhouse]

FULL TIME

New Zealand Kiwis 30
Australian Kangaroos 0

Wonderful performance from the Kiwis and they win the Pacific Cup! It's a shame so few New Zealanders actually turned up to watch the game. Officially over 13,000 in a stadium that holds 25,800. But the ground was definitely far from half full. Not even close.

A record defeat for Australia in a Test, the previous record losing margin was 24 points, against the Kiwis in 2005 and 1952.

Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad named man of the match. Emotional acceptance speech from the former Raiders fullback.

MATCH REPORT: Kiwis stun Kangaroos in historic upset







The New Zealand Kiwis have taken out the inaugural Pacific Cup final after keeping the Kangaroos scoreless 30-0 to orchestrate an international upset in Hamilton on Saturday. A 12-0 scoreline had the New Zealand faithful daring to dream at halftime and the fairytale final continued as the Kiwis ran in another 18 unanswered points to beat the Kangaroos for the first time since 2018.

Read more: https://www.nrl.com/news/2023/11/04/kiw ... ric-upset/







GALLERY: Kiwis v Kangaroos: https://www.gettyimages.com.au/photos/n ... &sort=best

[NoMan]

Well done to the Raiders contingent and the Kiwis. Their middles were epic but Tapine was a level above them all.

[Bay53]

Embarrassment to the Kangaroos jersey.

[Mickey_Raider]

That was abysmal from Australia and Mal might be in big trouble trying to secure his contract extension after that.

Tapine embarrassed the Aussie forward pack today.

Off the top my head I can think of a good handful of questionable selections, whether it is personnel wise or positionally.

Hynes, Tedesco through loyalty, Edwards at wing etc. Maybe time to think about moving on from the DCE/Hunt dads army selections at this stage too.

[gerg]

Very flat performance for the Aussies, but full credit to the Kiwis. They were outstanding today. I missed last week’s game so I don’t know if they were holding something back but they played Australia off the park today, in every single facet of the game.

[RedRaider]

The two Raiders involved in Tapine and Timoko along with former Raider CNK all very good. The never say die attitude of James Fisher-Harris was a stand out for mine. He was dynamic and the Australians could not match his inspirational play. But in truth, the Kiwi's looked like they wanted it more. Good luck to them and they are worthy Pacific Champions. Here's hoping Madge can bring some of that defensive intensity to the Raiders in 2024. NZ 30 defeated Australia 0.

CNK MOTM.

[afgtnk]

Well that's Mal gone

[-PJ-]

Yep.

23/26 just ain’t good enough.

[The Greenhouse]

Joseph Tapine outstanding for New Zealand, unlucky to miss man of the match. But then Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad made 30 runs for 277 metres and produced one try assist, two line break assists and six tackle breaks. The Kiwi halves also outstanding.

Joe Tapine played for 65 minutes, without a break. He made 20 runs for 210 metres, 92 post contact, one tackle breaks, two offloads, 33 tackles, one missed.

Matt Timoko scored a try and posted 11 runs for 140 metres, 58 post contact, one line break, three tackles breaks, 14 tackles, three missed.

We will be back in the early hours of Sunday for England’s third Test against Tonga, the final international for Elliott Whitehead. Join us from 1:30am AEDT. The match will be broadcast on Fox League.

[The Greenhouse]

Welcome to our coverage of this afternoon's Pacific Bowl final between Papua New Guinea Kumuls and Fiji Bati at Port Moresby. It is the very final game on the rugby league calendar in 2023.

Kick off is at 4:00pm AEDT. Broadcast live on Nine and Fox League and ass
Live scores right here. The two teams head out onto the ground now. Again, this is not a sell out. Now for the national anthems and the Fijian hymn.

We're underway!

[The Greenhouse]

16th min TRY PAPUA NEW GUINEA to hooker Edwin Ipape, quick dart out of dummy half from five metres out. Rhyse Martin converts, kicked it well wide of the posts and the wind blew it back between the posts. The last line drop our from the Kumuls went 70 metres, with the wind at their backs.

Papua New Guinea 6-0

[The Greenhouse]

25th min TRY PAPUA NEW GUINEA to winger Robert Derby in the corner. Martin good pass to help set it up. And Martin converts from the sideline.

Papua New Guinea 12-0

[The Greenhouse]

29th min TRY PAPUA NEW GUINEA to winger Robert Derby, he gets a quick double. Lachlan Lam and Alex Johnston set it up with the the shift to the left. Rhyse Martin gets the goal from the sideline, again.

Papua New Guinea 18-0

[The Greenhouse]

This match also highlighting why the format of this tournament has been flawed. PNG and Fiji meet two weeks in a row, one the final. But they only meet twice in the tournament. Same with the Kangaroos and Kiwis. Three Test series are a probably a better option.

[The Greenhouse]

36th min PENALTY GOAL PAPUA NEW GUINEA to Rhyse Martin.

Papua New Guinea 20-0

[The Greenhouse]

40th min TRY PAPUA NEW GUINEA to Alex Johnston. The left edge again in the action. The break is made from half way by Zac Laybutt and Johnston is backing up on the inside. Martin converts from in front.

HALF TIME

Papua New Guinea 26
Fiji 0

[The Greenhouse]

Papua New Guinea kick off to start the second half... and they get the ball back after an error from Fiji.

[The Greenhouse]

43rd min TRY FIJI to Waqa Blake. They go the length of the field and they score off a kick. Converted Wakeham from in front. We'll see what this wind is worth in terms of points now.

Papua New Guinea 26-6

[The Greenhouse]

48th min Going to the video referee for a no try to Sivo. Sivo loses the ball over the line. Bombed four pointer.

[The Greenhouse]

66th min SIN BIN PAPUA NEW GUINEA Prop Epel Kapinias sent to the bin for throwing a punch in a dust up. Time running out for Fiji, however. They must score four tries in the final 15 minutes.

[The Greenhouse]

70th min TRY FIJI to Waqa Blake out wide. Brandon Wakeham converts.

Papua New Guinea 26
Fiji 12

Over six minutes for PNG to survive with 12 men.

[The Greenhouse]

77th min TRY PAPUA NEW GUINEA to Epel Kapinias. And that wins the Pacific Bowl for the home team. Ipape kicks ahead, regathers the rebound and takes advantage of the chaos to set up the try. Rhyse Martin converts.

Papua New Guinea 32
Fiji 12

[The Greenhouse]

FULL TIME

Papua New Guinea Kumuls 32
Fiji Bati 12

Edwin Ipape is the man of the match.

MATCH REPORT: Derby with a double as Kumuls claim Pacific Bowl against Fiji



The PNG Kumuls delighted their home crowd and turned around their fortunes following a poor performance last week to claim the inaugural Pacific Bowl with a 32-12 win against Fiji. Embarrassed last week Sunday by the Bati in their 43-16 loss, the Kumuls came out with a new intensity in the final which showed in their determined defence.

Read more: https://www.nrl.com/news/2023/11/05/der ... inst-fiji/

[The Greenhouse]

And that is it for 2023. The final game on the rugby league calendar for this year. Thanks to all who have followed the matches we've covered this year, from the Harold Matthews Cup to Test match football. We'll do it all again next year!

[luffraider]

And that is it for 2023. The final game on the rugby league calendar for this year. Thanks to all who have followed the matches we've covered this year, from the Harold Matthews Cup to Test match football. We'll do it all again next year!

My girlfriend almost cried in happiness when I read this

[Leebola]

Kudo to CNK. He's twice the player he was at the Raiders. Kicking on under Webster and Madge

[Botman]

Kudo to CNK. He's twice the player he was at the Raiders. Kicking on under Webster and Madge

Yeah its a big ol L for me on that one. I truly did not think he had this level of ball playing in him and i was clearly wrong.
And as it turns out he did... and Webster got more out of him in 1 off season than we did in about 4 years. Big indictment on our coaching set up imo.