{"id":222929,"date":"2025-10-18T14:38:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T14:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/222929\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T14:38:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T14:38:25","slug":"round-one-results-png-orchids-defeated-by-cook-islands-moana-paulina-morris-ponga-scores-hat-trick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/222929\/","title":{"rendered":"Round one results, PNG Orchids defeated by Cook Islands, Moana Paulina Morris Ponga scores hat-trick"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cook Islands shrugged off a slow start to hand Papua New Guinea<\/a> a 34-6 loss at Santos National Football Stadium in Port Moresby on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Known as a finisher in the corner, Paulina Morris-Ponga starred for the Moana in tough conditions, scoring a hat-trick.<\/p>\n

Papua New Guinea launched a series of repeated attacks near the Cook Islands’ try line early, building towards scoring.<\/p>\n

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\"Paulina<\/p>\n

Paulina Morris-Ponga of the Cook Islands scores a try against Papua New Guinea.\u00a0NRL Images<\/p>\n

Orchids lock Emily Veivers broke the deadlock in the seventh minute, charging over from close range to score the opening try before kicking the successful conversion.<\/p>\n

Following the try, play was briefly paused while Fleur Ginn received treatment for a leg injury. The centre went down after being caught in the tackle by opposing players as the points were scored.<\/p>\n

Shaking off its slow start, the Cook Islands swiftly hit back with a try from Morris-Ponga.<\/p>\n

The visitors then followed up almost immediately, securing back-to-back tries as halfback Chantay Kiria-Ratu powered over to give the Moana the lead.<\/p>\n

\"Cook<\/p>\n

Cook Islands players celebrate a try against Papua New Guinea during the Pacific Championships.\u00a0NRL Images<\/p>\n

Morris-Ponga completed a first-half double, crossing in the left corner after receiving a slick, fast-paced pass.<\/p>\n

Just before the break, Hannah Makira added the Moana’s fourth unanswered try of the half.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 Pacific Championships live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Warming to the task and boosted by the strong breeze, the Cook Islands carried a dominant 20-6 lead into the break.<\/p>\n

Picking up where they left off, the Moana extended their lead after Memory Paitai executed a slick show-and-go.<\/p>\n

With the Orchids frequently held up, opposing prop Kerehitina Matua barged over next to the posts.<\/p>\n

A hat-trick by Morris-Ponga proved the icing on the cake for a comprehensive victory.<\/p>\n

Morris-Ponga is not contracted to an NRLW club, instead playing for the Akarana Falcons in the New Zealand Rugby League.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cook Islands shrugged off a slow start to hand Papua New Guinea a 34-6 loss at Santos…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-222929","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}