Nauru aiming to improve against SI, PNG take on Niue

ROUND two of the Oceania Rugby Cup kicks off today at the PNG Football Stadium with Nauru taking on the Solomon Islands in the opening game.
A young Solomon Islands team will be favourites in this encounter after losing 17-19 to Niue on Friday.
Solomon Islands captain Paul Tema will be looking to speedster Timo Sanga and 18-year-old flanker Daniel Sa’omatangi to lead their attack against Nauru. Newcomers Nauru will be looking to improve after going through a baptism of fire at the hands of PNG.
Nauru skipper Damon Adeang said his side would be working hard to refine their style of rugby with two matches left in the tournament.
“Throughout the game (against PNG), we were just defending but hopefully for the next two games, we’ll try and avoid that,” said Adeang.
The main match today will see tournament favourites Niue and Papua New Guinea do battle at 3:30pm.
Despite a convincing win by the Pukpuks last week, skipper Ahulo Ottio is wary of an in-form Niue side.
Ottio said timing was a concern for his side’s preparations and that they were looking to improve in the second round.
“We had a really short preparation but I guess the advantage was that a majority of the guys were from Port Moresby, and we’ve already been in camp prior to the tournament,” he said.
“But there’s still a lot of areas to improve on and that’s what we’re going to work on before our game against Niue.”