Cook Island NRL

[Druzik]

So the cook Islands competition is hoting up. After 7 rounds and about as many leader changes its the Avatiu Eels on top. Its a close one with only 3 points separating the leader with the 4th placed NM Sea Eagles.

Pos Team P W D L B F A PD PT
1 Avatiu Eels (AVA) 7 5 0 2 0 182 117 65 10
2 Tupapa Panthers (TUP) 7 5 0 2 0 164 137 27 10
3 Arorangi Bears (ARG) 7 4 1 2 0 143 109 34 9
4 NM Sea Eagles (NGM) 7 3 1 3 0 128 112 16 7
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5 Titikaveka Bulldogs (TKK) 7 2 0 5 0 118 166 -48 4
6 Aitutaki Sharks (AIT) 7 1 0 6 0 118 208 -90 2

All results are up on the website.

I am hoping to have Tongas, Fijis and Samoas Domestic results up soon, as they start this month in April.

[rhino]

great stuff

[Marv]

looks tight up the top

[Druzik]

Yeah it's closer than the NRL, on any given day you can't pick the winner. Last week the bottom dwellers got the top cats!

[Druzik]

www.cookislandnews.com said:

Panthers rule after grand final

Monday 12: It was a whitewash by the team in black.
Starting as the underdogs, the Tupapa Panthers just romped all over the defending champions, the Avatiu-Nikao Eels, in Saturday's league grand final.
It was a crushing blow to the Eels who have held the champion's trophy for the last two years.
The Panthers won comfortably 21-6 and were certainly the best team on the day.
Both teams went into the match knowing this was do or die no matter how good their past statistics, but the Eels just didn't seem to fire for the occasion.
The Panthers were hungrier from the first whistle, playing a fast paced game and leaving the Eels to chase them round the pitch.
In the first half, the Panthers scored two tries in quick succession. The first was through the Panthers' classy winger Turori Matutu who stormed through flat footed defenders.
The Panthers' second try came soon after through Conrad Piri who sliced through the Eels' defence like a hot knife through butter.
The Panthers' final try came through the fiery Selafi Tauroi.
Conrad Piri also showed his diverse skills by kicking a late drop goal.
The Panthers were big on defence with their flying winger Eddie Nicholas clocking the hit of the day by taking out the Eels' Ben Maaka just half a metre from the try line - to the rapturous delight of the huge crowd of Panthers supporters (in black) who held dominion over the national stadium with their cheers and applause from start to finish.
Maaka was also responsible for the Eels' only points of the day through a penalty try.
While the Eels lived up to their big hitting reputation, they couldn't keep the ball in hand with players dropping too many passes at crucial times in the game.
It's back to the drawing board for the Eels who also had a big crowd of supporters in blue and gold, but it was a day of major disappointment for all of them. - MW
Grand final results: premier-Panthers 21 vs Eels 6, reserve-Bears 10 vs Warriors 6, under 17-Sea Eagles 18 vs Warriors 16, under 14-Eels 22 vs Bears 16.

www.cookislandnews.com/

Congratulations Tupapa... so you can see all the results for this competition here. All results except the semis as I could not find them are there.

Am very happy about keeping track of this. You get to know so much about the comps everywhere. In previous weeks reports were that the RL was getting sell out crowds in CI of about 2-2.5k!

From the looks of it and reading the news Cook Is Rugby league is as strong if not stronger thean union and can almost be considered the national sport there!