Women’s rugby sevens side win bronze for PNG

THE national women’s rugby sevens side won bronze medall beating hosts Samoa 28-12 in the third-place playoff at the Pacific Games in Apia on Saturday.
In Friday’s opener of the two-day sevens event, Papua New Guinea started their campaign on a high after dishing out 47-0 and 53-0, thrashing Nauru and the Solomon Islands in their first two matches.
The women later faced their real test of the tournament in the third match against a hardened Fijian side and went down 38-5.
In the quarterfinals, a determined Papua New Guinea side beat New Caledonia 40-0 to book themselves a place in the semifinals against Australia.
PNG’s Fatima Rama was solid, scoring Papua New Guinea’s only try from the kick-off.
But it was not enough to overcome the experience of Australia, who denied PNG a place in the gold medal-medal playoff with a 31-7 win.
The women, led by captain Kymlie Rapilla and Rama, eased their way to victory in their match against Samoa.
Ball-handling errors by Samoa gave Papua New Guinea enough possession to run away with a 28-12 win.
PNG defeated New Caledonia in the 2015 Pacific Games in Port Moresby to win bronze.