The NSW Police and the Hawaiian Chiefs went head to head as the first game to be played on the re-turfed Aloha Stadium in Honolulu Hawaii on 20 August 2016.
The game was a prelude to the Ohana cup contested between Fiji, Canada, Samoa and Tonga.
In front of a healthy crowd of 10,000 people, the NSW side met fierce resistance from the huge Hawaiian Chief team who were steered around the park by former Kangaroo player and NRL star Scott Prince.
The NSW Police team were ably led by tough forward Mitch West. NSW opened the scoring after a well-placed Josh Murphy kick was chased by NSW centre Simon Gairns. Mitch West scored next with a great outside running performance to crash over in the corner.
Scotty Prince competitive as ever, mustered his big forwards who were tearing into the NSW team and he put over one of these monster’s for a try. NSW matched the intensity and kept their structure.
The NSW side lost key forwards but the team showed enormous spirit to hang in there and absorb the pressures from the Chiefs.
Classy NSW backrower, Nathan Clarke and fullback Lee Cameron cut through the Hawaiin Chief defence on separate occasions to each score classy tries to stretch the lead. Prince wouldn’t let the Chiefs lay down and showed his class mustering attacking raids and peppering NSW fullback Lee Cameron with a series of high bombs. Prince also struck a combination with the speedy Chief and current USA fullback who caused the NSW a lot of problems.
The Chiefs came back, with a couple of good tries, but NSW held on to win the match by 26 points to 20.
NSW Coach Craig Sheridan said, “I was proud of each of the boys today, it was a tough game and they showed a heap of spirit to win."
Thanks to the organisers and the Hawaiian Government for the invitation to play and their great hospitality.
