Pukpuks 7s eye finals

 By ISAIAH IGISH

PAPUA New Guinea sevens captain Hubert Tseraha is confident the Pukpuks can reach the finals of the Pacific Games competition, saying size did not matter for the home side.

The Pukpuks pulled off a convincing 24-12 win over Tahiti in their last match of day of play after losing 17-0 to World Rugby Sevens Series champions Fiji in their first match. 

After the Tahiti match, Tseraha said they had to go back to the drawing board and iron out the minor errors before the finals on Friday.  

“We have a lot of work to do. Today we played according with their game plan and we can’t do that in the final,” Tseraha said after the Tahiti match.

“There are more areas we need to work on.” 

He said the loss against Fiji was a lesson.

“The first game was the toughest (match) for us,” the Black Orchids product said. 

“We trained to face them to take them on home soil. 

“It was an opportunity in front of the home crowd. 

“We got some areas to work on.

“Size doesn’t matter but we need to work on our tackle and binding. 

“We need to do one-on-one tackles and focus on our defence.”

After the loss to Fiji, the Pukpuks came back on fire against Tahiti, with Tisa Kautu and New Zealand-based William Rew scoring two tries in the first half. 

Tisa again touched down in the second half, along with Wesley Vali. Arthur Clement converted two out of the four tries to beat the Tahitians 24-12.

Results (as of 6pm): Women’s: Australia 26 Fiji 7, New Caledonia 5 PNG 32, Samoa 35 Tahiti 0, Australia 24 New Caledonia 5, Fiji 33 Samoa 0, PNG 10 Tonga 7.

Men’s:  Fiji 17 PNG 0, Solomon Islands 12 Tahiti 0, Samoa 45 Tonga 5, New Caledonia 17 Vanuatu 7, Fiji 59 Guam 0, PNG 24 Tahiti 12.