The 2018 season of HRUA league kick off tomorrow
BY ROMULUS HUTA
THE much-anticipated 2018 season of the Honiara Rugby Union Association (HRUA) league will finally kick off this weekend at the Town Ground Rugby Stadium.
This follows the draws which took place at the Solomon Islands Rugby Union Federation (SIRUF) conference room yesterday.
The draws were held during a HRUA executive meeting attended by representatives of participating clubs.
HRUA is the legal governing rugby body in Honiara and has a total of eight affiliates namely Avaiki, Matangiki, Luapel, Diesel Services, Realas, Henderson HammerHeads, Islanders and TIA Warriors.
The eight affiliates are also ones contesting the 2018 season.
Three matches have been lined up for this weekend.
Two matches will be played on Saturday while one match is set for Sunday.
Kicking off the league round Saturday 2pm is Islanders taking on TIA Warriors and followed by Avaiki versus Diesel at 4pm.
The third match is on Sunday 4pm between Henderson Hammerheads and Matangiki.
The 2018 season is one of the main priorities since the election of Derek Pongi as HRUA president in June.
Pongi, who wishes to serve as HRUA President until the remainder of this current term lapses toward the end of the year, stated straight after his election that the HRUA league competition must uphold consistency to meet the growing demands of rugby in Honiara.
“For most part of this upcoming remaining months, HRUA executive is expected to carry out competitions for affiliated clubs which is going to be interesting and exciting, and I hope this will get rugby fans in Honiara get what they have been expecting since the beginning of this year,” Pongi highlighted earlier.
The league was initially agreed to kick off earlier last month. But to the rescheduling of the Solomon 7s competition for end of last week, HRUA had to reschedule their league’s kick off date as well, which will finally commence this weekend.
Meanwhile, Avaiki is the defending champion from last year’s competition, making it twice in a row after the 2016 edition.
