PNG to host FORU

 THE Federation of Oceania Rugby Unions (FORU) yesterday announced that the PNG Rugby Football Union (PNGRFU) will host the 2011 Oceania Cup to be held in Port Moresby, between Nov 29 and Dec 8.

PNGRFU president Richard Sapias, is pleased his union would be hosting the tournament, providing fans with an opportunity to witness some of the region’s exciting development unions in action.

“The PNGRFU are extremely excited at the opportunity to host the Oceania Cup in 2011. 

“Our region boasts a rich rugby tradition, and the Oceania Cup will provide a great opportunity for the players of the region’s development unions to gauge themselves against their Island rugby cousins,” he said. 

Oceania Cup tournament director, Michael Groom, said that PNGRFU has hosted major international rugby events in the past, and would deliver a successful tournament.

“In recent years, PNGRFU has hosted Rugby World Cup qualifiers and Oceania Cup finals – they have an enthusiastic event management team, and they will be excellent hosts for the participating Oceania Cup teams, officials and media.”

“We’re very excited to be taking one of our flagship events to Papua New Guinea, a union which has achieved excellent progress in International Rugby in recent years – including qualifying for the 2010 Junior World Rugby Trophy, Commonwealth Games (where they defeated Tonga and Canada to win the bowl final), the Asia Pacific Women’s Sevens tournament (runners-up), the HSBC Sevens World Series and of course reaching the final stage of qualification for Rugby World Cup 2011. 

“There is huge growth potential for rugby in Papua New Guinea and the hosting of the Oceania Cup is an important step in our vision for rugby in PNG” he added.

The Oceania Cup member unions are American Samoa, the Cook Islands, New Caledonia, Niue, PNG, the Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

PNG are the defending Oceania Cup champions.