Palais finish eleventh in Hong Kong

 THE Papua New Guinea Palais return home tomorrow from the Hong Kong Sevens women’s tournament with an eleventh place finish.

The women’s event took place last Friday at the Hong Kong Rugby Club. The Palais lost to Pool B opponents Brazil (19-0) and South Africa  (29-0) and followed it up with better effort in the losing to Kenya 12-5 in the Bowl semi-final.

The side did gain some consolation from the tournament managing to stay off the bottom of the placings by beating Singapore 22-5 in the eleventh place play-off.

Meanwhile Canada beat France 24-0 to claim the cup. Kazakhstan beat China 12-7 to take the Plate and Hong Kong thrashed Kenya 33-7 in the Bowl final.

The result for PNG however means more work will need to be done to develop the side over the coming months. New coach Elenoa Kunatuba has a job at hand to lift PNG from a straggler in the second tier to the top of that group of countries.

The Hong Kong tournament is a second tier women’s sevens tournament at present hence the absence of heavyweights New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and England.