1987 National Panasonic Cup

The 1987 National Panasonic Cup was the name of the annual mid-week knockout rugby league competition. The naming rights sponsor continued with Panasonic's product brand National. The tournament was played from March to June 1987, culminating in the final between Balmain and Penrith.

Format

The fourteenth midweek cup competition operated on a straight knock-out format. The competition increased to 20 teams with Northern Territory, South Australia and Victoria joining the competition.

The competing teams were the 13 Sydney premiership teams (Balmain, Canberra, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cronulla-Sutherland, Eastern Suburbs, Illawarra, Manly-Warringah, North Sydney, Parramatta, Penrith, St George, South Sydney and Western Suburbs), Combined Brisbane, NSW Country, Northern Territory, Port Moresby (PNG), South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia.

Northern Territory, Port Moresby (PNG), South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia played in a Preliminary (or qualifying) round.

Preliminary rounds

Date	Winner	Score	Loser	Score	Venue
5/04/87	Western Australia	18	South Australia	14	Perth
12/04/87	Western Australia	28	Victoria	10	Perth
12/04/87	Port Moresby (PNG)	52	Northern Territory	5	Danny Leahy Oval
19/04/87	Port Moresby (PNG)	50	Western Australia	10	Danny Leahy Oval

Round 1

Date	Winner	Score	Loser	Score	Venue	Man of the Match
4/03/87	Canterbury-Bankstown (Bennett, Hagan, O’Brien, Bugden tries, Farrar 3 goals)	22	Manly-Warringah (Davis try)	4	Leichhardt Oval	David Gillespie - Canterbury-Bankstown
11/03/87	North Sydney (Friend, Lennon 2, Graham tries, McArthur 2 goals)	24	Western Suburbs (Davis try, Naden goal)	6	Leichhardt Oval	Mark Graham - North Sydney
18/03/87	Parramatta (Eden, Jackson, Sharp tries, Eden 6 goals, Muggleton field goal)	25	Illawarra (Carney, Upfield tries, Carney 4 goals)	16	Leichhardt Oval	Mike Eden - Parramatta
25/03/87	Cronulla-Sutherland (Docking 2, Russell tries, Stains, Wilson 2 goals)	20	Canberra (Belcher try, Meninga 2 goals)	8	Carrington Park	Jonathan Docking - Cronulla-Sutherland
1/04/87	South Sydney (Mavin, Harrington, P.Roberts, Blake tries, Baker 3 goals, Baker field goal)	23	St George (Wynn try, Quinton goal)	6	Scully Park	Craig Coleman - South Sydney
8/04/87	Penrith (Robards, Bevan, Alexander tries, Bevan goal)	14	Combined Brisbane (Hegarty goal)	2	Leichhardt Oval	Craig Izzard - Penrith
22/04/87	Balmain (Sinclair, Camroux 2, Grounds, Owens, John Davidson, Davies, Bevan, Gale, McGuire tries, Conlon 6, Elias 3 goals)	62	Port Moresby (PNG) (Saea try, Kovae 2 goals)	8	Leichhardt Oval	Bruce Sinclair - Balmain
29/04/87	Eastern Suburbs (French 3, McGahan 2, Challis, Morris, Spina, Simpkins tries, Portlock 5, Smith 4 goals)	54	NSW Country	0	Leichhardt Oval	Hugh McGahan - Eastern Suburbs

Quarter finals

Date	Winner	Score	Loser	Score	Venue	Man of the Match
15/04/87	Parramatta (Crnkovich, Delroy, Laurie tries, Eden 3 goals)	18	North Sydney (I.French try)	4	Leichhardt Oval	Terry Leabeater - Parramatta
6/05/87	Balmain (John Davidson, Camroux tries, Conlon goal, Elias field goal)	11	South Sydney (Blake try, Ellison 3 goals)	10	Belmore Sports Ground	Ben Elias - Balmain
13/05/87	Eastern Suburbs (Challis, McGahan tries, Smith 2 goals)	12	Canterbury-Bankstown (P.Mortimer, Lamb tries, Lamb goal)	10	Chris Cunningham Field	Hugh McGahan - Eastern Suburbs
20/05/87	Penrith (Alexander 2 tries, Clements 3 goals)	14	Cronulla-Sutherland (Coleman try, Wilson goal)	6	Leichhardt Oval	Greg Alexander - Penrith

Semi finals

Date	Winner	Score	Loser	Score	Venue	Man of the Match
27/05/87	Penrith (B.Izzard, Smith, Alexander, Geyer, Vitanza tries, Fitzhenry 6 goals)	32	Parramatta (Erickson, Kenny, Sterling, Mares tries, Muggleton 3 goals)	22	Leichhardt Oval	Greg Alexander - Penrith
3/06/87	Balmain (Hanrahan, Neil, Sironen tries, Conlon goal)	14	Eastern Suburbs (Lydon try, Smith 4 goals)	12	Belmore Sports Ground	Scott Gale - Balmain

Final

Date	Winner	Score	Loser	Score	Venue	Man of the Match
10/6/87	Balmain (Gale, Gartner tries, Conlon 3 goals)	14	Penrith (Robinson, Fitzhenry tries, Fitzhenry 2 goals)	12	Parramatta Stadium	Ben Elias - Balmain

Player of the Series

Ben Elias (Balmain)

Golden Try

Steve O'Brien (Canterbury-Bankstown)

Sources

http://users.hunterlink.net.au/~maajjs/aus/nsw/sum/nsw1987.htm
Rugby League Project - Port Moresby Vipers

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.