Saturday, 02 February 2008200802020500

Cook Islands upset big boys
Get together Wednesday, train Thursday, then beat England Friday - the Cook Islands provided a crowd-pleasing upset as the minnows roared on the opening day of Wellington's sevens yesterday.

While tournament favourites New Zealand predictably cruised through their opening two matches - crushing Canada 43-0 and Papua New Guinea 41-0 - it was a rougher path for England and Argentina, who both crashed out of the main draw.

The vaunted South Americans lost 19-7 to the United States in the opening match of the tournament, then again, 19-17 to Tonga.

But undoubtedly the highlight of the opening clashes was the underfunded Cook Islands' 21-17 boilover against the cash-rich English.

"We've only been together for a week. Some of us met up on Sunday and them some more arrived on Wednesday," Cook Island playmaker Koiatu Koiatu said.

"We knew it would be hard against England because they are bigger and far more experienced and we had a couple of really young guys."

Though mainly from the islands, the Cooks side also had a local flavour, being captained by Northern United halfback Adam Vardey and including veteran Horowhenua fullback Ashley Drake as well as Amos Ioasa, the younger brother of New Zealand player Tafai Ioasa.

Koiatu, a veteran of six Wellington tournaments, said with better preparation and funding the Cook Islands were capable of competing more regularly.

"We don't worry about what the big teams are doing. I told the guys `give everything and retain the ball and anything can happen'."

The Cooks couldn't repeat their feats in losses to Fiji and Wales, but their opening effort was bad news for England, who also lost 15-5 to series newcomers Wales, who stole their spot in tomorrow's Cup quarterfinals.

New Zealand coach Gordon Tietjens admitted the early results had shocked even sevens veterans.

"There were some major surprises out there today, obviously seeing England lose and Argentina, but hey - that's the nature of sevens, unfortunately for them. Also there has been some improvement from some other teams as well.

"I don't think they've prepared well enough. When you have a six-week break between tournaments you can lose so much."

The Kiwis hardly skipped a beat, scoring 14 tries in their two outings, with Tomasi Cama scoring three times and skipper DJ Forbes, Israel Dagg and Zar Lawrence twice each.

But coach Gordon Tietjens was more interested in his side's defence as they faced Samoa in last night's final match, with the winner's prize being not having to play Fiji at the quarterfinal stage.

Tietjens said he was very pleased with his team.

"Defensively, outstanding. Some guys made some good options and we scored some good tries. Maybe we tried a bit much on our own in the second game and won't get away with that in bigger games."

Tietjens was also pleased with the way his younger players had settled into what can be an intimidating atmosphere.

"They are spending time out there and going to a few sponsor's boxes and things like that to soak the atmosphere up. Rene Ranger and Victor Vito - guys like that are only 19 and 20. It's a real experience and they're loving it. There's nothing better than playing for your country in front of 30,000 people."

Fiji cruised into the knockout phase, beating Wales 40-7 and Cook Islands 31-14, while Samoa beat Papua New Guinea, 22-0, and Canada 31-10 to ensure they advanced.

You may not copy, republish or distribute this page or the content from it without having obtained written permission from the copyright owner. To enquire about copyright clearances contact clearance@fairfaxnz.co.nz.

What an embarressment!!

the sponsors should not be wasting their money sponsoring png pukpuks 7's team. They get thrashed everytime and always look for excuses.

mi sem yah!

Someone has to take responsibility for this embarassment.....i say sack the coach, the selection panel, the captain and get rid of the over 30 players.

I agree there should be some investigation as to why they lost like when the All Blacks lost in the quater finals of the world cup...

dont think we should be lenient on the pukpuks players, as they also contributed to this "National Shame"...
Their performance has been below average but i think the right people to blame should be the selectors..

Why are they, year after year, selecting the same players, except for a few new faces just to be beaten. I dont think the players, should be subdued to so much critisim, although i made some comments earlier out of utter frustration..i think the issue is with the selection process...
From the performances seen so far on the field, i've come to the conclusion that "few" players within the
pukpuks squad are selected based on merit, whereas the rest are all selected through, "wantok system"....

The other issue that needs to be looked at further is, and which i think is imperative is,
how the players are being prepared prior to this event... are there any lead up matches with other clubs before such tournaments?...
I'm sure that would help alot. Or perhaps, they give the same old excuse.."Nogat Money"... which i think is totally bull sh.it!!!.
There is money there... they just dont have the brains to utilise those sums for the betterment of the code.

The other issue which i think that contributes alot to the pukpuks demise has been the coach...same old coach and still there is no flare. The coach has'nt got the brains to instill some flare and charisma in the players.... we need new style and tactics...

Like i mentioned earlier, why cant PNGRFU have a facility for athletes to undergo high-performacne training,...
i mean surely there are couple of millions being allocated to PNGRFU every year by the IRB for the codes development.
Cant see any fruit of that either....

Until we sort out all those issues, the pukpuks will keep on losing year after year....

Its funny how only NAtional paper reported on the embarassing loss and not Post Courier.....its tuesday and not even a report.......is it because John Pangatana works for PC sports???? well too bad...there has to be a report and we want to read all actions taken........c'mon, this is the number one daily

same old **** different year... simon kapui team manager never played the game looser and peter charma mate silosi druma good coach but loves his boys...

cecil davani good bloke but sorry he just keeps getting picked for these duties for a free trip... some of the boyz work hard but hey lets not kid ourselves its private school rugby club boys and mates taking care of mates....

same as the fifteens digicel knows it and thats why they are trying to look for ways to get out of the sponsorship which is for junior development and sevens only all that money IRB gives is just wasted...

they need to go back to the old days of PJ vitolo etc when png was ranked in the top 10 anyway dream on like everything else its all going down the toilet..

good luck we will keep geting pumped they shouldnt use the PNG name but use pom rugby union name i think cause they all pick them selves...

Oops, Pukpuk maggots! no!! this are backyard Rugby juniors. Useless na lapun pinis.

Get rid of them old weeds

they didn't pick any goroka and lae boys and they got their pants pulled down and their asses spanked like little boys that had to be disciplined for sneaking in to a big boys contest. yupela mosbi yupela kaikai kan.

Shame, shame, shame! I thought nepotism stopped long time ago. Obviously Not......

When I studied at Unitech there was definately so many of us who played in the Morobe squad who could have made the pukpuks. It never happened. All you see is the same drinking mates from POM, and now I read that their younger relatives are carrying on the same habits of selection. What a shame!

Parkin useless......the PNGRFU needs cleaning up for sure! and SOON.

Otherwise, I bet my money, the Pukpuks will still be the laughing stock of PNG.

Pukpuks, are useless and that only depicts whoever is making the choosing.

Easy picks and easy points made by other teams in the Pacific.

Selectors and managers........should hang your head in shame. Go to your backyard, have a good look at yourself that its not them players that made a shame, it is you who made the selection that is neither a moron or champion, you are the low profile, maggot who ain't have no brains.

Get somebody like Martin Bigeding into the coaching arena amd you'll see the difference. Martin was the longest serving PNG PukPuks of all time, that was in the late 80s. He's still fit and active and is ready to put his hands up for the top coaching job. This MOROBEEN could make a difference!!!

Rausim Willie Rikis, he's just going there for a free trip, and just taking up space...ish so call best ever captain my ass....