Gearing up for growth

Women’s rugby sevens training begins today at the BCI Stadium to prepare for the Oceania Qualifier tournament for the 2013 Sevens Rugby World Cup in Russia.

The IRB and FORU will be focusing on growing women’s rugby which will be in the 2016 Olympics.

At the recent FORU meetings on Rarotonga last week, it was agreed that there was a need for more regional competitions for Oceania teams.

Fiji will host the Oceania Qualifier tournament for the 2013 World Cup and will include nine teams – Australia, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, New Caledonia, Tahiti, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and now the Cook Islands.

Only the winner of the qualifying tournament, scheduled for August 3-4, will progress to an Asian Regional Tournament and the top two teams from that competition will compete at the at the 2013 Worlds.

The qualifier in Fiji will double as the entry to the Asia Pacific Women’s Sevens competition and the next top five teams at the qualifiers in Fiji will qualify for the Asia Pacific tournament.

Papua New Guinea is the defending champion of the tournament scheduled for August 31.

Women athletes wanting to be a part of this exciting growth in women’s rugby in the Cook Islands and across the globe are encouraged to register your interest with Lara Sadaraka of the CIRU on 55714 and Ben Koteka on 54469.

Training tonight starts at 5pm at the BCI Stadium.