Sevens side set

By ISAAC LIRI
MAX Vali and namesake Wesley Vali will lead a fresh Papua New Guinea sevens side to its first big test of 2017 at next week’s Wellington Sevens in New Zealand.
The Morobe Hammerheads captain Max Vali will need all the support he can get from Wesley as well as the side’s other experienced players in Manu Guise, Henry Kalua, Dean Manale and Arthur Clement as PNG Rugby Football Union announced its final 12-man squad for the Wellington leg of the HSBC World Series yesterday at Bava Park, Port Moresby.
PNGRFU presidential hopeful Steven Kami said the 16-man squad would represent the country at the Wellington tournament from Jan 28-29 and the Sydney Sevens from Feb 4-5.
The side will travel to New Zealand on Monday with Kami saying the aim for side at both tournaments was to “harden up” for Hong Kong where they hoped to qualify for the world circuit.
“The most important thing is Hong Kong, under my management Wellington and Sydney are really just part of preparation,” Kami said.
Assistant coach Sailosi Druma said only 12 players would travel to the New Zealand capital while four players had also been named as non-travelling reserve.
“The reserves won’t be travelling to Wellington but will travel with the team to Darwin for lead-up matches and be in contention for Sydney if anything happens,” Druma said.
Kami said the preparations for the team would not have been possible without the funding from sponsors such as Interoil, MRDC, Click TV, Pacific Industries, Seeto Kui, Leading Edge and Axellerate Sports.
The former Pukpuk prop said his executive had not been wasting time since taking control of the PNGRFU office with one of their aims to ensure the national men and women teams were prepared to meet the commitment with World Rugby.
“We want to do better this year and build up from 2017 to do better next year and onwards,” he said.
Druma said they were confident with the team as it was made up of some experienced hands but had several promising debutants such as Central speedster Freddy Rova and he was also pleased with the fact that the team was made up of players from all the regions around the country which was a result of the domestic satellite sevens tournaments staged throughout 2016 to identify talented players.
Druma hoped the team gained from the Wellington and Sydney tournaments with the Hong Kong 7s at the top of their priority list.
Team: Henry Kalua (ENB), Willie Tirang (ENB), Danny Opa (CRU), Nathan Baramun (AROB), Wesley Vali (Mend), Manu Guise (CRU), Arthur Clement (ENB), Freddy Rova (Central), Dean Manale (CRU), GairoKapana (Central), Patrick Tatut (Manus), Max Vali (Morobe)l; Non-travelling reserves: Jason Pitbang (Morobe), Eugene Tokavai (ENB), Navu Nope (Central), Maluai Pitala (Morobe); Coach: Douglas Guise; Assistant coach: Sailosi Druma.