Matches boost Palais

ALTHOUGH not qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics, the national women’s sevens rugby union team’s participation at the 2020 Olympic Repechage in Monaco, last weekend, was a huge boost for the sport in Papua New Guinea.
The Palais’ participation in the tournament was the first time that a PNG team sport had reached the final qualifying stages for an Olympics.
“To have gotten this far was not only a great achievement for women’s rugby, but also for women’s and team sports in PNG,” PNG Rugby Union administrator Ian Liveras said in a statement.
Going into the qualifiers, the Palais were ranked as one of the top-three seeded teams for the tournament.
On day one, they lost their first game against Tunisia 5-46 and did not play their second game against Jamaica, which had been cancelled.
On day two, the Palais lost their second match against Kazakhstan (10-17) who had in turn beaten Tunisa twice – 12-0 on day one and 29-21 on day two.
The mixed bag of results was a reflection of the difficult conditions that the team had to contend with whilst preparing for the tournament.
The two Covid-19 lockdowns, funding issues, availability of coaching personnel, logistics and travel restrictions, which resulted in the team arriving in Monaco a day late minus one player, had placed the Palais in a difficult predicament.
It was evident from the first game that the team lacked match fitness, which was a crucial missing component in the team’s preparation.
Despite their strength and conditioning programme, the team needed to play in a tournament or selection trials, however, this was not possible.
As such, although they struggled against Tunisia, the game was what the players needed to shake off the cobwebs and they performed admirably against Kazakhstan.
“A review will be conducted on the team’s preparation leading up to and during the tournament,” Liveras said.
“Based on the learnings from the review, a plan will be put in place for the team to prepare for their next campaign.”