By PETER PUSAL
TWO visiting teams, Tonga and the Cook Islands arrived yesterday to take part in the Air Niugini-sponsored Pacific Sevens tournament at Lloyd Robson Oval this weekend.
The Islanders made their way out onto PNG soil ready to stake their claim on this weekend’s Air Niugini Pacific Sevens tournament.
The incentive for this tournament is great for Pacific teams on the fringe of inclusion in the world sevens circuit with the winner of this event qualifying to play in the pacific leg of the World Series tournaments, either the Adelaide or Wellington Sevens.
With most of the squad based in New Zealand and Australia, this is Tonga’s full strength team signaling their intention to do very well at this tournament.
“We are here to play some good rugby and hopefully we will do well in this tournament”, said young Tongan player Sione Tuitavake.
The crash tackling, hard-running Tongan rugby team: a team renowned for their ferocious defense as witnessed in this year’s Rugby World Cup game against South Africa where they took the eventual world champion Springboks all the way to the line with a mix of tigerish defence and hard, gritty ball running are looking to have an impact on the tournament.
However the likely teams to beat are the Cook Islanders and Niueans.
Bearing in mind that both Samoa and Fiji have not sent their top teams owing to them taking part in the World Series sevens circuit. The Cook Islands are still smarting after a poor showing at the recent South Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa where they failed to qualify for a medal play off, and they will definitely be looking to make amends at this event.
PNG is also a good bet following their bronze medal performance in Apia earlier this year and should be confident going into the tournament with the home ground advantage and the absence of Fiji.
An early casualty of the tournament is Wallis and Futuna who have pulled out of the event.
The PNG Barbarians have also been included giving more PNG players exposure to international sevens rugby.