Palais showed glimpses of improvement, coach says

PNG Palais coach Paul Tietjens said his side showed signs of improvement at the Sydney sevens over the weekend.
The ICTSI South Pacific Palais failed to win a game losing their three HSBC World Series Sydney women’s 7s Pool A fixtures against New Zealand (38-5), England (36-5) and France (53-0) on Friday at Spotless Stadium, Sydney.
Tietjens said his side showed signs of improvement but faded as the day wore on.
“The girls showed some glimpses of improvement against some very strong sides,” Tietjens said.
“We just need to get fitter and get our conditioning up to a point where we can be competitive longer. We need to make fewer mistakes and not give away possession.”
In Pool A, France came out of the blocks firing against England with a 27-14 win. New Zealand initially encountered some resolute defence from invitational team PNG before captain Sarah Hirini dotted down, but the Palais had the crowd on their feet soon after when Fatima Rima had the pace to outrun Michaela Blyde and acrobatically score a try. The Black Ferns Sevens, though, ran in five further tries, many of them down the middle, with Niall Williams and Ruby Tui among the scorers.
Tietjens said Rama’s effort against New Zealand showed PNG had the potential to put points on but being consistent was the challenge going forward.
“Fatima’s try was really good. She ran 80m, beating Michaela Clyde, who’s one of New Zealand’s best players,” Tietjens said.
“It was unfortunate that Fatima couldn’t play in the game against France after being concussed in the England game.
“We’ve got the Hong Kong qualifier in April as our next tournament. We’ll have three camps between now and then. We’ll get a few of our injured players back for that so we’ll definitely be better.
“We’ll have Chelsea Garesa, Marie Biyama, Michaelyne Arumbi from Tasmania and Joanne Lagona back so that’ll strengthen us.”
England bounced back from the loss to France with a 36-5 defeat of PNG, Celia Quansah and Claire Allan both scoring braces in a match that once again saw the Palais score a try from their own half, this time Cassandra Sampson spotting a gap to run down the touchline.
The Palais took on France in the final pool clash and the earlier exertions taking a toll on them as they crashed to a 53-0 loss.
On day two (Saturday), the Palais were overwhelmed by England 54-0 in their Challenge Trophy semifinal and then lost the 11th-place playoff match 31-0 to China.
China’s Chen Keyi scored a hat-trick along with tries to Yu Liping and Chen Ming to leave the Palais still seeking their first-ever series victory at the tournament.
In other results, Fiji won the challenge trophy final beating England 15-12 and New Zealand beat Australia 34-10 in the cup final.