Fossil fuel giant, Santos, has renewed its naming rights sponsorship for the Papua New Guinea women’s national rugby league team, the Orchids.
Despite the recent slump in form by the National women’s team, Santos sees the potential to invest in the pathways and programs to improve the standard and empowerment of women in rugby league.
The three-year multimillion kina investment by Santos will cover the junior school rugby league development programs, technical coaching and support staff, travel and accommodation and international fixtures for the orchids such as the current Pacific Championships leading up to the World Cup in 2026.
Santos Country Chairman, Leon Buskens said Santos continues to support the empowerment of women in Papua New Guinea in line with its values in building a better future.
“At Santos our purpose is about creating a better world for everyone by delivering positive outcomes in the areas where we operate, and the Orchids provide a great platform for our young women and girls to realize their full potential,” Buskens said.
Santos is also the naming rights sponsor of the first ever women’s national rugby league competition, which is part of the partway to strengthen the national women’s team.
Chairlady of the Santos PNG Orchids, Celestine Ove said Santos believes in the pathways that are being set up by the Papua New Guinea Rugby Football league, and despite a slump in performance, they see improvement soon.
“The sponsorship is purpose driven. It is a powerful platform to empower our women and girls to give them an equal opportunity to participate. Rugby league is said to be the national sport and it’s for both men and women.
“I know the performance wasn’t desirable but from the start of the Orchids in 2017 to now, having the Santos Cup, we are working on strengthening the pathways for our women and girls.
“With the emergence of the junior Orchids who performed well against the Australian school girls, we are excited that in a few years time we look to see the Women’s competition,” Ove said.
The PNG Womens team (Orchids) was established in 2017 as the first ever women’s national team for Papua New Guinea.
In 2019 they beat the England Women’s side and in 2022 they made it to the Women’s Rugby League World Cup semi-finals.
Chief Executive Officer of Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League, Stanley Hondina said there is a clear pathway set to grow the game and standard of women’s rugby league in Papua New Guinea.
He added that rugby league experts involved in establishing the developmental pathways are important.
He said the Australians are playing at a different level and we must get the best options to help improve the standard of the women’s game in Papua New Guinea.
He added that the focus is on improving the domestic competition so the women can be competitive during international matches.
“The quality of Santos Cup is equivalent to the BMD Cup in Brisbane. Everything that we do in the Santos Cup is of that standard, instead of sending five girls to play in Australia, we build our players on the domestic front so bring in the subject matter experts and build our systems, build the processes for us so that our players can come through.
“In the next five years we want our competitions to compete with the Queensland Cup,” Hondina said.
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