Palais off to Hong Kong

By ISAAC LIRI
THE ICTSI PNG Palais fly out of the country on Sunday to compete at the HSBC Hong Kong Sevens qualifying tournament April (4-5).
Coach Paul Tientjens will travel with a 13-member squad led by senior players captain Kymlie Rapilla, Debbie Kaore, Fatima Rama and a returning Joanne Lagona.
The side also welcome back Alice Alois who provides additional speed. Alois will combine with youngster Chelsea Garesa and Marie Biyama who missed out on the Sydney 7s last month and are expected to sparkle in this one.
After running trials for the Hong Kong event this week, Tientjens believes the team’s fitness levels have improved from their last outing.
“In Sydney, in the later matches we fell off on a lot of tackles and that was due to our conditioning levels but we’ve worked on that in our preparations,” the New Zealander said.
The Palais are pooled with Hong Kong, Uganda and Kenya in the World Series qualifying event where the winner will be promoted to the HSBC World Series next year.
Palais: Helen Abau, Alice Alois, Marie Biyama, Fatima Rama, Marlugu Dixon, Chelsea Garesa, Yolanda Gittins, Debbie Kaore, Joanne Lagona, Kymlie Rapilla, Taiva Lavai, Cathy Puro, Gemma Schnaubelt.