Raggianas backed

By JACK AMI
THE Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League will ensure that they give the national women’s side all the support it needs to be competitive at this year’s Rugby League World Cup in Sydney.
PNGRFL chairman Sandis Tsaka said he was confident that national selectors would pick a Raggianas side capable of winning matches at the inaugural event, which runs parallel with the men’s tournament in November.
Tsaka said only registered players would be eligible for selection and added that selectors would also consider overseas based prospects to include in a training squad which would be assembled in September.
“We are looking at a quality range of players who are intelligent, skillful and perform to their best in order to compete well against the top teams like the Australian Jillaroos, New Zealand Kiwis Ferns and England,” Tsaka said.
The Raggianas are in pool B with New Zealand and Canada while Australia, England and the Cook Islands are in Pool A. All pool matches will be at the Southern Cross Stadium, Cronulla, Sydney.
The Raggianasa will play Canada and the Kiwi Ferns in their second and third fixtures but open their tournament against pool A’s England.
The pool winners meet in the final which will be at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane on Dec 2.
“I think we’ve got a good chance against the two sides in our pool,” Tsaka, pictured, said.
“We just have to make sure we prepare as best we can and are ready for ther World Cup.
The top two sides in each pool advances to the playoffs.
“We just have to win two games to make the semi-final.” .
He confirmed that selectors would consider players who played both rugby union and leaguesaying that because the player pool was small selectors would have no issues with picking domestic players who code hopped so long as they were registered with the PNGRFL and played in the National Confederate Championship in Lae.
“We’ll be looking at the best female talent from the four confederates (Southern, Northern, Highlands and New Guinea Islands) at the championship later in the year.
“This is the main tournament where we’ll be picking our national side from so players who want to be considered need to be part of this.”
Tsaka said rugby union had contributed several stars to the league ranks andhe had no qualms about using that talent.
Rugby union’s PNG Palais stars like Freda Waula, Menda Ipat, Cassandra Sampson and Dulcie Bomai are just several of the names that are in contention.
Tsaka said the competition for spots in the Raggianas was good for the side and was also a challenge to female league players in the four regions.
Fixtures: Nov 16 – PNG v England; Nov 19 – PNG v Canada; Nov 22 – PNG v NZ.