Keep full teams: Official

 ALL national teams preparing for the Pacific Games must have permanent coaching and management teams by now, a sports official says. 

A Papua New Guinea Rugby Union official said as teams are preparing for the Games, coaches and team officials needed to be maintained in order for them to guide the players.

Sydney Wesley was appointed last week to be the new coach of the national women’s sevens team after their bowl-winning effort at the Hong Kong 7s women’s competition last month.

Wesley is the third coach of the Palais in 2015 after previous coach Sailosi Druma was reassigned by the PNGRFU to administrative duties. 

Prior to Druma, Fijian Elenoa Kunatuba was the women’s coach.

The official said she was concerned that the players were not benefiting from the change in coaching, especially leading up to a major tournament, where a team needed to decide on the style of play, and their direction.

That leadership normally comes from the coach but with the constant change in mentors it would be harder for the players to be set.

She said a coach needed to have experience of some kind in coaching women as well and was concerned the union had lost a lot of that experience as it changed coaches.

“As we are gearing up for the Pacific Games there should be a permanent coach to be with the team as part of their final preparations,” the official said.

She said coaches appointed should be those that are continually working from one result to another and not those that come in and try to start up all over again. 

The official said as the women were slowly making progress in their games but the continuity in coaching to complement that was not there.

“The girls have now slowly improved in their performance on the international scene and they need someone who can be with them to mentor and train them as they go.

“The Pacific Games is one of the important games where the girls are looking forward to butthis kind of preparation could hinder them.”

The Palais squad resumes training today after a two-week break coming off the Hong Kong 7s.