Pukpuks eye more depth

By HUXLEY LOVAI
BUILDING a competitive pool of rugby sevens players has been the focus of Papua New Guinea coach Douglas Guise, who has included a number a youngsters in the recently announced team for the Sydney (Jan 26-28) and Hamilton (Feb 3-4) legs of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.
With the busy schedule for the Pukpuks this year, Guise is keen to give the younger players such as Isaac Aquila, Samu Malambes and Emil Latuminah as much game time as possible to experience competitions at the elite level, playing against the world’s best players.
“We are going to blood a few younger boys, with half the team below the age of 22. The core group of players is between the ages of 24 and 26,” Guise said.
“We have a good pool of players for the next couple of years. Our main goal is to qualify for the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series. But we are also keeping our eyes on the Pacific Games in 2019 and the Olympic Games qualifiers.
“We are building up really well to that. We have a good core group with a steady flow of talented kids coming through and adapting to our style.”
Guise told The National that the final 12-man squad would have a week together training as a unit, going into more in-depth, concentrating on game play and tactics.
“We will be focusing on what we have to do as we try to counter the top teams that we will face in South Africa and England.”
In the Sydney leg of the HSBC World Sevens Series the Pukpuks are in Pool C along with South Africa, England and Spain.