TEAM PNG rugby 7s narrowly missed out on the bronze medal by losing to
Tonga 19-12 on Wednesday in the 2013 IX Mini Pacific Games.
Wednesday was a long day for the Pukpuks 7s as they first took on Fiji in
the first of three matches to qualify for medal playoffs.
The Pukpuks tried to hold up against Fiji but lost 24-15. Eugene Tokavai
was injured in the game and taken to the hospital but returned later to the
field to be with the team after being cleared of any serious injuries.
In the second match the Pukpuks met Tuvalu and made sure that they got as
many points as they could by beating the islanders 50-0.
In the third game, they went up against a favourite Tonga 24-10.
Placed after the three, Samoa, Fiji and Tonga, the Pukpuks played the
first semi-final match against Samoa.
Unlike on Tuesday, they did not allow the Samoans to merely walk over
them and put up a good fight with Albert Levi making a good run up the middle
and outrunning the Samoans to score the first try for the Crocodiles after
trailing 14-0 six minutes into the game.
Unfortunately, the Samoans were a bit too good and the final score for
that match was 49-14.
In the other semi-final match, Fiji beat Tonga 24-5.
Tonga then played PNG for the bronze and the Pukpuks narrowly missed winning
the medal by losing 19-12.
In the gold medal game, the bigger-sized Samoans beat Fiji 31-12. At half
time, Fiji was trailing 24-0.
With those results, the final ranking sees champions Samoa on 24 points,
Fiji 20, Tonga 18, PNG 14, New Caledonia 13, Wallis and Futuna 10 and Tuvalu 9.
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