Pukpuks, Palais backing each other

By HUXLEY LOVAI
THE Papua New Guinea Pukpuks and Palais sevens squads have been training hard with four days left before the Sydney sevens tournament from Friday.
The past week has allowed the coaches to focus on specific areas that their teams needed to work on to be competitive in their matches.
Palais coach John Larry’s main concern has been the team’s discipline, especially as fatigue sets in during the final minutes of matches.
“The girls get a bit tired and they drop off, losing concentration. That’s when they start to make mistakes on attack and defence and let in tries.”
The biggest assets for the Palais are their speed and mobility.
“Once they develop their skill base the team will be better placed to really challenge the top tier teams,” Larry said.
“They need to start moving the ball a bit more, retaining possession,” Larry said.
Pukpuks coach Douglas Guise has praised the spirit and commitment of the players in both national squads over the past few months as they have remained focused on their goal preparing for the upcoming tournaments this year.
“The important thing is that the Pukpuks and the Palais are enjoying training and we look forward to giving our best in Sydney and Hamilton (New Zeland) over the next few weekends. “We always train together.
“The men and women share the same field during their sessions. We, more or less, use the same systems, exchanging ideas helping each other out during training. It’s more of a family atmosphere with both teams.
“Especially with what we have been through over the last few years, we have had to stick together and help each other out,” Guise said.