Pukpuks eye Fiji match

By JOHN PANGKATANA
THE Papua New Guinea Rugby Football Union (PNGRFU) is waiting on final clarification to host this year’s Oceania Cup 15s challenge.
The bonus for this year’s Oceania Cup winner will be given the golden opportunity to vie for a direct qualification to the International Rugby Board (IRB) World Cup 2015 in England.
The only obstacle in the way is a one-off clash with regional heavyweight Fiji in the next stage of the qualifying stage in 2014.
The winner will join Group A alongside Australia, hosts England and Wales.  
PNGRFU operations manager Simon Kerr yesterday confirmed that Port Moresby had been earmarked to play host to eight members of the Federation of Oceania Rugby Union (FORU) from July 1-15.
The eight members will come from the FORU tier three membership of PNG, American Samoa, the Cook Islands, Niue, New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands, Tahiti (French Polynesia), Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Wallis and Futuna. 
“However we (PNGRFU) are just waiting on final clarification from FORU and other administrative issues that need to be sorted out before an official announcement can be made,” Kerr said.
He confirmed the dates targeted were during the school holidays in the nation’s capital, where an opportunity to engage the successful Pacific In Union (PIU) programme for schools presented itself.
He said that a regional-based 15s squad would be in place following a proposed national trials to be held before June.
Last year, the Capital Rugby Union (CRU) provincial team,  under its new banner, competed successfully to win the national provincial championship staged in Lae.
Kerr said he could not finalise things at this stage but selection for the PNG Pukpuks was in the pipeline.