Palais focus on Oceania Sevens

AFTER bowing out of the Olympic qualifier, the national women’s sevens rugby union team now turn their attention towards preparing for the November Oceania Sevens.
The Oceania Sevens will serve as a qualifier for the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the 2022 Challenger Series.
“As per the competition pathways that Papua New Guinea Rugby Union (PNGRU) will soon be announcing, players throughout the country will have an opportunity to vie for selection into the national squad for the team that will be training for this year’s Oceania Sevens,” PNGRU administrator Ian Liveras said in a statement.
“We thank the members of the training squad and travelling team, who dedicated the last 12 months to prepare for the tournament (Olympic qualifier)
“We also thank our coaching and management staff who worked tirelessly to support the team.
Liveras also extended “a special thank you” to the PNG Olympic Committee for supporting the women’s sevens programme from the get-go.
He said without their assistance, it would have been a huge challenge for PNGRU to send the team to Monaco to compete at the 2020 Olympic Repechage. “We would also like to thank Brian Bell and Nesa Foams for their generous value in kind support of the team,” he said.
Liveras said to assist in the Palais’ Oceania Sevens preparations and development of all representative teams, PNGRU had embarked on visits to help provincial unions strengthen their club competitions so that “we have larger player base to draw from when selecting players for the national squads”.
The PNGRU team, comprising national development manager Liveras and legal officer Lanna Asaigo Kami, visited Goroka and Lae, which included Lae Rugby Union and Morobe Rugby Union.
They will be visiting Kokopo this weekend, followed by Daru, Wewak, Kavieng, Madang and Lorengau in the coming weeks.