7s side hopes to qualify

The Cook Islands national rugby sevens team, currently competing in the 2010 Oceania Sevens Tournament in Darwin, were hoping to beat Papua New Guinea last night to assure themselves of qualification for future international tournaments.

On day one of the tournament on Friday (Thursday CI time) the Cooks defeated Vanuatu 21-10 but went down to Tonga 22-14 and Australia 19-7.

Cook Islands Rugby Union president John Wichman, who is in Darwin with the team, said despite the losses the side produced very credible performances.

Against Tonga the Cooks led 14-12 at one stage and held the opposition for quite a while into the second half. The Tongans were really on the rack as the Cooks headed for their clear try-line but unfortunately the Cooks dropped the ball near the 22.

Against Australia it was 7-7 at half time. Wichman said the boys played well and were unlucky to concede two more tries.

He said with the boys all well and no injury replacements it was looking good for the second day yesterday.

With Australia and Samoa already qualified, it is up to the other six teams – Cook Islands, Tonga, PNG, Niue, Tahiti and Vanuatu – at the tournament to fight it out for qualifying rights for the IRB sevens legs in Adelaide, Wellington and Hong Kong

A win against PNG will automatically guarantee qualification but a loss will mean they will have to play to qualify for at least one of the tournaments and eliminate the bad memories of not qualifying at all last year.