Pukpuks banking on backs

THE Papua New Guinea Pukpuks will aim to make their presence felt on home soil when they make their return to international 15s in the second match of the Oceania Rugby Cup against newcomers Nauru at the PNG Football Stadium today (3.30pm kick-off).
Pukpuks head coach Billy Rapilla is confident of a strong showing with an experienced backline to lead the hosts’ attack.
“Our strength is in the backline so we’re going to give them as much opportunity as we can,” he said.
“We want to make sure that we do our bit to protect the ball and use it wisely on the field so we don’t get ourselves into difficult situations on game day.
“We do have our forwards who will need to take it up first and hopefully create some space for our backs to have some opportunity to show their worth.
“We’re aware that we are playing an opposition (Nauru) that we are not clear about or what they are like.
“We’re quietly confident that the we have the experience to play well at this level but at the same time, we can’t underestimate them.”
Pukpuks captain Ahulo Ottio said he was confident that PNG could deliver positive results during the tier-three tournament despite their three-year absence.
“We haven’t participated at this level for the past three years so the players understand what this means for the future of the Pukpuks going forward,” he said.
“A short preparation I admit, but everyone knows each other in camp and the boys are not new so we gelled pretty well.
“We want to set the platform right and we just want to get the job done on the field. We’re here to do a job. We’re not here on a holiday.
“We’ve got our heads in the right space and I believe that we will make our supporters and our coaches happy in the end.”
Fixtures: Fri, Aug 23 – Solomon Islands v Niue (1pm), PNG v Nauru (3.30pm).