Palais make solid start at qualifier

THE Papua New Guinea Palais face South Africa today in the quater-finals of the Women’s Sevens Series Qualifying tournament in Hong Kong.
The John Larry-coached side beat Columbia 19-0 in their opening Pool C fixture yesterday with Kymlie Rapilla, Joanne Logona, Fatima Rama and Teresila Rema crossing the line against the South Americans.
Logona, who only this week signed a contract to play for the Tokyo Phoenix in the Japanese women’s rugby competition, kicked three conversions in a solid first outing.
Enforcer Debbie Kaore was yellow-carded but that did not stop PNG from dominating the exchanges after leading 7-0 at halftime.
The Palais were given a reality check by South Africa in their second match going down 24-7 in a physical encounter where Logona put PNG on the board first with a typical runaway try which she converted herself.
But the South Africans regrouped and out-played the Palais using their experience and all-round speed to hit back with tries to Zenay Jordaan and Veroeshka Grain to go into the break 14-7 in front. The second half saw the Africans pile on three more five-pointers through Mathrin Simmers, Nadine Roos and Zintle Mpupha.
Rama, who is the Palais leading try-scorer at this tournament so far with two tries, was the second PNG player to be yellow-carded.
The Palais beat Italy 12-5 in a tough encounter for their last pool fixture.
Despite Rama getting her second yellow card, the Southern Highlander scored a try while Logona also helped herself to a touchdown for PNG after initially trailing the Italians 5-0 at the break.
Logona kicked one conversion.
For Italy, Maria Magatti scored their only try.
The winner of the PNG-South Africa final will play the winner of the Belgium-Netherlands quarter-final in the semifinal.
The winner of the Italy-Kenya quarter-final faces the winner of the China-Japan quarter-final.
China scored the biggest win of the tournament so far when they thrashed Jamaica 54-0 in their Pool A fixture.
Draw for Women’s Sevens Series Qualifying Quarter-finals: Fri, April 7 –  South Africa v Papua New Guinea, Belgium v Netherlands, Italy v Kenya, Japan v China.