PNG
National Rugby League Competition
The Papua New Guinea National Rugby League Competition (or the PNGNRL for short, for sponsorship reasons the PNGNRL Digicel Cup) is a semi-professional rugby league competition held annually in Papua New Guinea. Formerly known as the SP Inter-City Cup or SP Cup (1990–2008) and later the Bemobile Cup (2009–2010) after changes in sponsorship. The current competition is sponsored by pacific telecommunications giant Digicel and is now known as the Digicel Cup.
History
THE EARLY DAYS
The Intercity Cup began in 1990 but prior to that our only representative matches and competition was the national zone championships involving the four zones (Northern, Southern, Islands and Highlands)
In 1987 Port Moresby VIPERS were invited to play in the midweek National Panasonic Cup in the ARL. Port Moresby Vipers beat Northern Territory 50 points to 2 and Western Australia 54 points to nil. In the quarter final we were smashes 64 points to 8 by Balmain Tigers.
In 1988 talk about an intercity challenge competition by the then coach of Port Moresby Vipers Rob Cochraine and Stan Joyce with SP Brewery to sponsor the intercity competition and in 1989 Mr. Stan Joyce got employed by SP to kick start the competition.
THE COMPETITION
1990 saw the birth of the Intercity competition cup competition. The competition was called the SP Intercity Cup Competition which was run directly by SP Brewery under the SP Cup Trust Fund.
The first premiers of the competition were the Port Moresby Viper and their opponents been the Mount Hagen Eagles. 1990,1991 &1992 these two teams battled it out and the Port Moresby Vipers were the first ever team in the history of the Inter City Cup competition to win a hattrick of premiership wins only to be equaled by Mendi Muruks 2006, 2007 & 2008. The vipers attempted to go for a fourth time in a row but were denied by Goroka Lahanis but came back strongly to win the cup again for a fourth time.
1990 to 2003 the competition ran as normal and in 2004 there was no competition that year and in its place SP Brewery hosted an SP Shield match between Popondetta Butterflies and Mendi Menjails.
2005 BIRTH OF PNGNRL
2005 saw the formation of an independent body to run the Inter City Cup competition. The new system allowed franchise owners owning their own team and running their own club affairs. The clubs were owned privately and greater autonomy was given to the clubs to run and manage their own affairs this brought the competition to another level professionalism was the key to their success.
SPONSORS OF THE COMPETITION
- SP Inter-City Cup – (1990–2008)
- Bemobile Cup – (2009–10)
- Digicel Cup – (2011–2022)
- Digicel and ExxonMobil – (2023–Present)
THE WAY FOWARD
2008 saw the end to the SP BREWERY sponsorship and B Mobile took over from 2009 to 2010 and in 2011 Digicel took as the major naming rights sponsor till now. SP Brewery are the Platinum Sponsor of the competition.
The Santos National Football Stadium has become home to the Digicel Cup and in its hosting the game has gone to another level with the new rules have allowed video referee and other modern technology in taking the game forward.
2017 saw the PNGRFL take over the competition and the competition became Papua New Guinea National Rugby League competition.
Today there are 12 teams competing in the competition THE teams are comprising of;
1 HELA WIGMEN
2. RABAUL GURIA
3. MENDI MURUKS
4. LAE TIGERS
5. CENTRAL DABARIS
6. ENGA MIOKS
7. PORT MORESBY VIPERS
8. GULF ISOUS
9. KIMBE CUTTERS
10. GOROKA LAHANIS
11. WAGHI TUMBE
12. MOUNT HAGEN EAGLES
THE GAME IN THE FUTURE
The game has seen a lot of transitional changes and with junior development pathways in every Franchise clubs, the future looks bright this upcoming season and beyond.
The pathway programmes must be looked at seriously and every club must have their own pathway programmes for our country to be competitive in the world.
Rugby League Teams
Board of Directors
Adrian Chow
Lorna McPherson
Leith Isaac
PNG RFL CEO Mr Stanley Hondina
League News
Preseason training for our Digicel ExxonMobil Cup referees
The 2024 Digicel ExxonMobil Cup Referees preseason
