Papua New Guinea's Sevens coach Douglas Guise will lead a 12 man squad to take part in the 2017 HSBC Hong Kong Sevens qualifiers from April 7-9.
Papua New Guinea sevens coach Dougie Guise. Photo: RNZI
PNG is pooled with Spain, Uruguay, Guyana and Hong Kong.
According to Guise, the team will be the same that toured the Sydney and Wellington Sevens in January.
"Fitness is manageable despite being eight weeks since the last tournament in Sydney," he added.
"We can be able to control their fitness, however it's hard to measure the strength of our players because we lack competition back home," Guise said.
Guise said a few changes have being made with Hensley Peter of the East New Britain Stallions replacing Daniel Opa of the Capital Rugby Union.
Opa went down with a knee injury three weeks ago during the CRU pre-season matches, while Maluai Patalai was replaced by Dean Manale.
"We are hoping to at least get out of the pool stage in order to get a space for the quarterfinals," Guise said.
Guise said PNG will play Uruguay on Friday at 12pm then face Guyana at 2pm.
"If we make it through to win any of the two teams then we will have a chance to excel out of the pools stage for the quarter finals," Guise added.
Early favorites are Spain, Germany and Hong Kong, while there are several others including PNG who are vying for the second spot in the world at the moment.
The PNG squad: Henry Kalua (ENB - co-Captain), Gairo Kapana (Central), Willie Thirang (ENB), Wesley Vali (Mendi), Arthur Clement (ENB - co-Captain), Dean Manale (CRU), Hensley Peters (ENB), Nathan Baramun (AROB), Patrick Tatut Jr (Manus), Eugene Tokavai (ENB), Freddie Rova (Central) and Emmanuel Guise (CRU).
Wesley Vali is one of three PNG players with previous World Sevens Series experience. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
