Oceania Sevens Championship

The players were encouraged by PNG Pepes team captain Lua Rikis during their farewell today by the High Performance Sport Southern Centre for Excellence. 

Palais depart the country this week to play at two events at Fiji in November.

The 15s team will play against Fiji on November 5 to qualify for the World Cup Qualifier.

The 7s team will participate at the Oceania Sevens Championship from November 11-12 against Fiji, Australia, Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga and the Solomon Islands.

After the 2016 National Provincial championships held last weekend in Port Moresby, The PNGRU has selected its extended squad for a 10-day training before training the team down to the final 12 for the Pukpuks Sevens team.

The two days tournament will also fully combine the men's and women's Sevens Championships for the first time.

THE PNGRU during the last week’s national provincial tournament also selected its female side to make up the PNG Palais squad, but is yet to be announced.

The Championships will be held in Suva, at ANZ Stadium over two days, Friday 11th -Saturday 12th November, and will be the perfect lead in to the start of the 2016-2017 Men’s and Women’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series that kick-off in Dubai in early December.

This year’s Oceania Rugby Sevens Championships will see recently crowned Men’s Olympic Gold medalists and current World Rugby HSBC Sevens Champion Fiji participate for the first time since its Rio de Janeiro triumph.

The Pukpuks were handed a 41-7 beating by a strong Samoan side.

Samoa led 15-0 at half time and ran in more tries in the second half to secure a comfortable win.

The Pukpuks only try came from Robin Loma. Paul Nelson added the extras.

For the Palais game, Samoa did it easy beating them 31-7.

The Palais only managed one try in the second half from Alice Alois which was converted by Amelia Kuk.

The Pukpuks finished day one of the Championship with 2 wins and one loss while the Palais won one game and lost two.