30 Jun 2014

Sport: PNG wins Commonwealth Nines Rugby League Championship

2:21 pm on 30 June 2014

Papua New Guinea coach Dennis Miall says their victory in the Commonwealth Rugby League Nines Championship is a big tick for the work being done at home at the grassroots level.

The PNG Under 19 team went through the inaugural Commonwealth tournament undefeated, beating Australia 22-8 in the final in Glasgow to secure the gold medal.

PNG Hunters player Stanton Albert was also named player of the tournament.

The final squad was selected from a pool of 60 players and coach Dennis Miall says their success is a reflection of the hard work being put in to players from a young age.

"After putting through this training programme, the schoolboys programme, it is more or less a check to see how far we have come and where our weaknesses are and where our strengths are. We thought we would use this to match ourselves with other international teams and to see where the strength of our competition is".

Dennis Miall says the tournament was a success and he hopes the Nines format is included in the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.