Coach of the ICTSI South Pacific Palais, Paul Tietjens, believes he has given his Papua New Guinea team the best possible preparation as they put the finishing touches to their training.
This is for the Sydney leg of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series this weekend.
Tietjens concedes that his team will start as underdogs in the opening match against New Zealand at 1pm (12pm PNG time) to be carried live on local TV station EMTV, which has secured broadcast rights jointly with TVWAN for the Rugby 7s series for the PNG audience.
But the fact that the ICTSI South Pacific Palais will be facing off against tier one nations such as New Zealand is not going to intimidate his players to deviate from what they have been practising during training.
“We will focus on what we can control, put pressure on New Zealand and target their weaknesses,” Tietjens said as the team preparations hit the home stretch leading into the competition which kicks off on Friday.
Tietjens said after three high performance training camps, two in PNG and the third in Sydney over the past week, “we’ve got a relatively consistent team’’.
“The girls have worked very hard, we’ve built a good team culture where everyone is prepared to work for each other, play consistently and put pressure on the core teams.”
The ICTSI South Pacific Palais, from a tier two rugby nation, are in Pool A against New Zealand, England which they play in their second game at 3.28pm (2.28pm PNG time) and France 6.12pm (5.12pm PNG time).
Pool B for women has Canada, Russia, Ireland and Fiji while Australia, USA, China and Spain make up Pool C.
Tietjens believes he has done his homework on the opposition and his team has not drifted too far off their initial objective to cause upsets at this tournament.
“We are fine tuning how we want to play the game. We are playing against the world’s best players.”
PNG is considered a tier two country in rugby and qualified for the series after finishing ahead of other teams of similar rating in the Oceania 7s in Fiji last year. The Pukpuks 7s men’s team just missed out when pipped to the position by Tonga.
Tietjens said the ICTSI South Pacific Palais have pace and speed and some size, giving them a good all round balance to be competitive against quality opposition this weekend.
He named captain Kymlie Rapilla and Debbie Kaore for their size and pace, Fatima Rama, Cassandra Sampson, Gemma Schnaubelt and Taiva Lavai, among players who are game breakers that can cause headaches to opposition teams if they play to their potential.
The rest of the players - Helen Abau, Yollanda Gittins, Anika Butler, Melanie Kawa, Geua Larry, Lynette Kwarula and Gwen Pokana - are all focused to step up and wear the national colours of PNG with pride if picked in the side to take the field.
Mala Mark unfortunately had to return home on Monday due to injury.
Tietjens has a side that the opposition does not really know much about and the unknown talent is something that could be an advantage against rival sides.
Following the three-day tournament, the ICTSI Palais will regroup and begin preparations for the Hong Kong leg in April. Tietjens used the opportunity to thank all the sponsors ICTSI South Pacific, Credit Corporation, National Gaming Control Board, G4S, Gateway Hotel, PNG High Performance Centre and Axellerate Sports for their continuous support in this campaign.
This tournament is significant in that further participation in the HSBC series becomes inevitable based on where they finish.
The Palais’ 2019 campaign also includes the Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa, in July in which a medal is still a goal for the team.
The PNG side is also keeping its sights on qualification for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, as its ultimate objective.
In order to do that the ICTSI Palais will have do well at the Oceania 7s in Fiji in November.