Rugby 7s

Tournament Director, Paul Joseph said the set-up of the plan is vital, as it will pave way to create programs to develop rugby union talents in the province.

Joseph who is officiating the tournaments in South Fly District, with games played at the local and community level has seen the need to take on a proper plan to develop the code.

The first leg of the Satellite Rugby Union 7s competition is being played in Masingara Village in the Binaturi Region. It will run for three days, starting this Friday 24 December. On Sunday 26 December, teams who make it to the finals, will compete for the Ose Kings Cup.

The tournaments promote peace in the community during this festive period, and identifies talents in the respective Local Level Government (LLG) areas for the Daru town competition (JC Cup).

The tournament was officially opened by member for South Fly and Minister of Civil Aviation, Seki Agisa.

The awards are in recognition for their great contribution in representing Daru and the PNG Pukpuks on the world stage of rugby union.

This momentous occasion will coincide with the Satellite Rugby Union Sevens tournament which gets underway in Daru this Friday 24 December.

This will be a milestone event for rugby union in Daru and province, having produced a good number of exciting 7s players over the years including former PNG 7s Pukpuk legend Paul Joseph. Joseph had competed at a higher level against some of the world class 7s teams during his playing era.

A late inclusion trying out for a spot in the Palais team was young touch footballer Gemma Schnaubelt.

Schnaubelt first featured at the 2017 National Touch Championships.

She played for the Brisbane based team and was recently invited by the PNG 7s team to try out.

She is the daughter of Namatanai MP Walter Schnaubelt.

She arrived from Brisbane this afternoon before taking the field.

A little jetlagged, Schnaubelt joined the rest of the players in the selection trials under head coach John Larry.

A total of 12 countries will be participating in this tournament and debutant PNG is grouped in Pool A alongside big guns New Zealand, Canada and France.

Coach John Larry pointed out that the last few days of training, leading to this weekend, will focus on defense and improvements in the ruck areas.

Larry said: “When the game is in the ruck areas we need to circle the ball back.

“We are playing against the big teams so there’s got to be fast rucks, we got to work as threes and pass the ball wide. 

Despite their 54-0 loss against Fiji in the opening match on Thursday, the PNG women have bounced back to win the other three matches against Nauru, Tonga and American Samoa.

Last week saw the semi-finals being played.

In the Bowl event, Tubs Titans will take on Keleone Greens. This game kicks off at 11am while Rigo Magani will lock horns with Aroma East Coast in the Plate grand final starting at 1pm.

The Cup grand final will see the Porebada Bulldogs  go up against Aroma West Coast at 3pm.

The grand final will be played next Friday at the Kone Tigers Oval in the nation’s capital.

Speaking at the finals last night of the inaugural Amiau 7s Cup, Amaiu said he wanted to see the sport of rugby union develop and get back to its glory days.

He congratulated all men’s and women’s teams for their efforts over the 2 day tournament on the weekend.

Amaiu also committed a further 100,000 kina for next year with the focus for the Capital Rugby Union (CRU) to get more youths involved in the sport to grow the game.

“I want to help rebuild this code and for the lost pride to be retained,” said Amaiu. 

The games will determine a final PNG national men’s team to represent PNG in the Olympic qualifiers competition in New Zealand in November this year, as well as the Wellington and Hong Kong qualifiers for the World Series.

The 15-man squad includes: Tisa Kautu (captain), Buttler Morris, Billy Torea, Henry Kalua, Lawrence Kuso Jnr, Stanis Susuve, William Tirang, Arthur Clement, Robin Loma, Hensley Peter, Emmanuel Guise, Paul Nelson, Koroseta Veni, George Morseu and Wesley Vali.

The team’s coach is Douglas Guise and the manager is Damaris Minikula.

They defeated Autonomous Region of Bougainville 24-15 in the grand final today at the Sir Hubert Murray Stadium in Port Moresby.

Morobe advanced to the grand final after beating East New Britain 12-10 in a close encounter while AROB defeated home team CRU Boromas 24-22 to make the grand final.

Another Momase Region team Madang took home the Plate after defeating Alotau 24-19.

In the bowl play off, Kimbe Rebels won the Bowl beating Goroka Kilituas 19-12.