Tietjens plots Palais success

PAPUA New Guinea Palais coach Paul Tietjens says his side’s goal at next month’s HSBC World Series women’s tournament in Sydney is to compete with and beat their opposition.
“Our goal is to go to that tournament (Sydney 7s), upset some of those core teams and put them under a lot of pressure,” Tietjens, who returned to Sydney last Friday after spending a week with the ICTSI South Pacific-sponsored team, said.
“It’s going to be a very tough ask and a huge challenge for these girls but it’s going to be a huge experience for them and I definitely think that we can push some of the teams and cause some upsets if we play to our potential and I’m looking forward to seeing the outcome of that.”
The Palais qualified for the 2019 Sydney and Hong Kong tournaments on the World Series by finishing in the top four of the Oceania 7s in Suva, Fiji, last year.
The Palais are pooled with world champions New Zealand, England and France at the Sydney 7s (Feb 1-3) and have played the Kiwis and English before in past World Series fixtures.
“For us we’ve got a very challenging pool of New Zealand, England and France, so they’re three very tough sides that are going to bring huge challenges in their own rights.
“We need to be prepared but I guess more for us it’s about doing the things well that we can control and that’s doing the basics well, our execution of our attacking skills and making sure we’re really strong on our defensive structures. That’s really important for us.
“I think if we can play well as a team and individually execute our skills as best we can like we know we can, then we can definitely push and challenge the teams we face.”
Tietjens, who took up the role of head coach only last year taking charge of the squad at the Western Sydney 7s — the Palais finished runners-up in the cup final — and then at the Oceania tournament, said he was impressed with the group of players he had to work with and was confident they would improve on previous results.
“In terms of improvement so far the girls have improved hugely in regards to their fitness levels, they’ve each gone at least a level up in their fitness testing which we completed on Monday (Jan 7) which was very pleasing,” Tietjens said.
“We’ve been working very hard under our strength and conditioning trainer Molosi Ila which is really pleasing so they’re getting fitter every time they come into camp and that’s a credit to the trainer and the management.”
The Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, native said he was also encouraged by the culture and attitude exhibited in the side which he said was equally as important as the other aspects of being a competitive side.
“In terms of the team’s culture, that’s developed hugely as well. The efforts that they put into training and the fact that they are really enjoying each other’s company and working hard for each other on and off the field is really pleasing.
“So their levels of conditioning and their culture are massive improvements that I’ve seen and in terms of their game sense and their game knowledge, that’s improving every training that we have and I’m looking forward to seeing how they go at the challenge Sydney brings.”
The 31-year-old, who is the son of former long-serving New Zealand All Blacks 7s coach Sir Gordon Tietjens, was part of the Samoan men’s coaching staff last year as their strength and conditioning coach before taking up the Palais role.
The Palais disbanded from their one-week camp last Friday but the locally-based squad members would continue to train under assistant coach Frank Gabi this week before flying out to Sydney on Sunday (Jan 20) joining up with Queensland-based squad members Yolanda Gittins, Melanie Kawa and Gemma Schnaubelt for 11 days of preparation ahead of the tournament.