Rugby 7s kicks off with favorites taking charge

Fiji beat PNG 17-0 in their men’s pool A match-up on Thursday. Photo by Dave Buller.

PORT MORESBY, July 9 – The BSP stadium came alive with the beginning of men’s and women’s rugby 7s at the Port Moresby 2015 Pacific Games on on Wednesday.

It was an exciting start to the tournament with Port Moresby 2015’s two best women’s teams, Australia and Fiji, facing off first up.

Australia emerged surprisingly easy victors, taking a 26-7 victory.

Hosts Papua New Guinea were up next, and they put a buzz through the crowd with an excellent 33-5 victory over New Caledonia.

Despite this solid result PNG coach Sydney Wesley was not satisfied.

New Caledonia were no match for Australia, going down 22-5 at the BSP Stadium. Photo by Dave Buller

“We still need to polish-up on few areas if we want to make the finals,” he said after the match.

If as to prove Wesley’s point, things got much more serious later in the day for PNG, as they were pushed by a Tonga team playing its first game of the tournament. But PNG escaped with a three-point win (10-7).

In the PNG women’s final game of the day they came up against the might of Fiji and reality hit them hard, going down 29-0 to a team still stinging from losing their first match against Australia.

Fiji dominated its other game of the day against Samoa.

Australia ended the day 3-0, following up its first win with two more against New Caledonia (22-5) and Tahiti (59-0).

Fiji, the men’s world No.1 rugby 7s, team, wasted no time stamping their authority on the tournament against PNG (17-0) and Guam (59-0), and they wrapped up the day by putting 59 on a hapless Solomon Islands.

Papua New Guinea shook off the early loss to Fiji to secure two good wins against Tahiti (24-12) and Guam (53-0).

Pool B favourites Samoa scored 114 points and only gave up five in their two matches on Wednesday.

Tonga scored all five of Samoa’s opponents’ points in their 45-5 loss, while Nauru did not trouble the scorer in going down 69-0.

New Caledonia went 1-1 on the day, winning against Vanuatu and going down to Tonga.

Rugby 7s competition continues on Thursday and the medals will be handed out on Friday.

By Norbert Koke and Samuel Kehatsin