Plans are underway for the Satellite Rugby Union 7s organisers to establish a 5-year development plan for rugby union in the Western Province.
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.
He said the Satellite 7s was introduced in 2019 to engage youths in the area and provide opportunities through sport. Paul feels that Satellite 7s now has the opportunity to provide a pathway for up and coming stars who will one day make it to the international level to represent the country.
Joseph said: “Satelite 7s is a concept used to bring together youths in the district and engage them in a sport that is known throughout the world and that is rugby union.”
He said in order to develop the sport in the district and province, they must create development programs and pathways that are necessary and in line with other programs where youths are in the community and in schools.
“The Five Year Plan is to capture the attention of young people, which means creating programs such as, Get into Rugby, which is supported by world Rugby. At our end creating schools rugby union tournaments and women’s tournaments is the way forward.”
Joseph said for South Fly and Daru, they need to work closely with PNG Rugby Union where there is support provided to creating programs and pathways that they can establish in the long run.
“We started the Satellite 7s tournament which we are so pleased with, because now we can move forward and create more programs with support from World Rugby. Within five years we want to see that there are more international players produced from the Satellite 7s,” he said.
Joseph dreams big and one day would like to see an academy set up in Western Province.
Satellite 7s Chairman, Napoleon Mapo said, there are so many things that they would like to do but sponsorship has always been a major problem that has kept the organisers from carrying out their duties.
“We have already started and set standards, now we are moving forward and bringing the games to the door steps of the people at the LLG level. Our plan for the future is to turn the area into a home of Rugby Union,” Mapo said.