Pukpuks in third place play-off

PNG Pukpuks Under 19s team play American Samoa for the third position in the Oceania rugby tournament in Apia, Samoa, today.
The young crocodiles played three games in their pool competition, the first clash was against Pacifics heavyweights Tonga.
It was the toughest of welcomes for PNG as Tonga showed no mercy in their 57-0 demolition of the Pukpuks.
“This was a good introduction for our team,” head coach and team manager Alan Manning said.
“This was the first taste of what international rugby was all about.” 
The Pukpuks were looking to make in their second pool match against the American Samoans.
The opening minutes saw PNG forwards, led by Jude Kamano, Josh Vakona and Joseph Vagi, meet their bigger opponents in a good tackling performance.
In a remarkable turnaround, the Pukpuks thrashed the American Samoans 46-0. 
The team showed great ball skills and defensive play to get the surprising result, including a hat-trick of tries scored by flyer Jubalani Rumbam.
“We reviewed the tapes and noticed that there were plenty of missed tackles, especially our first-up tackles against the Tongans,” backs coach Dougie Guise said.
“Our game plan leading into the American Samoa was to lift the intensity by tackling well and meet their forwards head on,” he said.
PNG’s final pool game was against the Solomon Islands who were very physical and there was a good battle in the midfield. 
Solomon Islands led 5-3 with only seven minutes to go when Johnson Longogo stepped up to score in the corner for PNG to lead 8-5 in the dying minutes of the game.
A penalty right on full time gave Solomon Island the opportunity to level the score. However, the kick went astray and PNG won to secure their play-off against the Samoans today.