Papua New Guinea national rugby sevens team
Rugby team
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The Papua New Guinea national rugby sevens team competes in the Pacific Games, Commonwealth Games, Challenger Series and the Oceania Sevens. They finished third in 2009 and fourth in 2010, 2015, 2016 and 2023 in the Oceania Sevens. They missed out on a maiden Olympic spot after being defeated by Samoa 24–0 in the 2023 Oceania 7s Olympic Playoff.[3]
| ||
| Union | Papua New Guinea Rugby Football Union | |
|---|---|---|
| Nickname | The Pukpuks[1] | |
| Coach | John Larry[2] | |
| Captain | Bartholomew Levi | |
| Top scorer | Paul Joseph | |
| ||
| Largest win | ||
| Papua New Guinea 62–0 Tahiti 7s (National Stadium, Honiara; 23 November 2023) | ||
| Largest defeat | ||
| Papua New Guinea 0-64 England 7s (Wellington; 3 February 2006) | ||
| World Cup Sevens | ||
| Appearances | 1 (First in 2018) | |
Papua New Guinea has also played the Hong Kong Sevens World Series qualifier. In the 2015 edition, they went to the semifinals, where they lost to Russia. In 2016 they lost all matches in the group phase. In 2017 they reached the semifinals.
PNG qualified for the 2010 Commonwealth Games and 2014 Commonwealth Games.[4] Papua New Guinea made its first appearance at the Rugby World Cup Sevens in 2018, following its fifth-place finish at the 2017 Oceania Sevens Championship.
Tournament history
World Cup Sevens
Commonwealth Games
Pacific Games
Pacific Mini Games
| Pacific Mini Games | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | Position | P | W | L | D | |||
 1997 |
Did not enter | ||||||||
 2009 |
Bowl Final | 6th | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | |||
 2013 |
Bronze Final | 4th | 8 | 3 | 5 | 0 | |||
 2017 |
Did not enter | ||||||||
| Total | 0 Titles | 2/4 | 14 | 6 | 8 | 0 | |||
Oceania Sevens
| Oceania 7s | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | Position | P | W | L | D | Refs | ||
 2008 |
Plate final | 5th | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | [5] | ||
 2009 |
Third playoff |  |
8 | 4 | 4 | 0 | [6] | ||
 2010 |
Third playoff | 4th | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | [7] | ||
| 2011 |
7th playoff | 7th | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | [8] | ||
| 2012 |
Plate Final | 5th | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | [9] | ||
 2013 |
Plate Final | 6th | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | [10] | ||
| 2014 |
Plate Final | 5th | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | [11] | ||
 2015 |
Third playoff | 4th | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | [12] | ||
| 2016 |
Third playoff | 4th | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | [13] | ||
| 2017 |
5th playoff | 5th | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | |||
| 2018 |
7th playoff | 7th | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | |||
| 2019 |
5th playoff | 6th | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | |||
| 2021 |
did not attend | ||||||||
| 2022 |
withdrew | [14] | |||||||
| 2023 |
Olympic Qualifying Final | 4th | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | |||
| Total | 0 Titles | 12/14 | 72 | 37 | 33 | 2 | |||
Oceania Sevens Challenge
| Oceania 7s Challenge | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | Position | P | W | L | D | |||
| 2022 |
Final |  |
5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | |||
World Rugby Sevens
World Rugby sevens series
The Pukpuks Sevens have participated as an invited team to selected tournaments across 10 seasons on the world series circuit since the inaugural season in 1999–2000. Historically, they have participated in 18 tournaments particularly the New Zealand Sevens (2000–2002, 2004, 2008, 2011, 2015, 2017 and 2018), Australian Sevens (2000, 2002, 2011, 2017 and 2018), Fiji Sevens (2000), Japan Sevens(2000) and the Hong Kong Sevens (2002). To date, Papua New Guinea have played a total 127 matches accumulating 237 tries and 1507 points overall. Their best all-time season finish is 12th placing from the inaugural season in 1999–2000.
Player records
The following shows leading career Papua New Guinean players based on performance in the World Rugby Sevens Series.[15]
| No. | Player | Tries |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paul Joseph | 29 |
| 2 | Albert Levi | 12 |
| Kevin Vitolo | 12 | |
| 4 | Henry Liliket | 9 |
| Aiem Pilokos | 9 | |
| Willie Tirang | 9 | |
| No. | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paul Joseph | 291 |
| 2 | Albert Levi | 80 |
| 3 | Kevin Vitolo | 70 |
| 4 | Henry Liliket | 47 |
| Raymond Yauieb | 47 | |
| No. | Player | Matches |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paul Joseph | 33 |
| 2 | Douglas Guise | 29 |
| 3 | Eugene Tokavai | 25 |
| 4 | Montgomery Diave | 20 |
| Gairo Kapana | 20 | |
| Henry Liliket | 20 | |
| Kevin Vitolo | 20 | |
World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series
Papua New Guinea have appeared in every edition of the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series since the inaugural season in 2020. This was through qualification for being one of two highest ranked non-core World Rugby Sevens Series teams from the Oceania Sevens Championship.
| World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Rounds | Position | Points |
| 2020 | 2 / 2 | 11th | 16 |
| 2022 | 1 / 1 | 11th | N/a |
| 2023 | 2 / 2 | 9th | 9 |
| 2024 | 3 / 3 | 11th | 6 |
Current squad
| Squad to 2024 World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series - Men's tour[16] |
|---|
|
Previous squads
Squad to the 2023 Pacific Games:
| Players |
|---|
| Derrick Voku |
| Emmanuel Alfred |
| Benjamin Boas |
| Benson Hayai |
| Benjamin Kennedy |
| Mhustapha Kura |
| Kunak Late |
| Kadum Mais |
| Richard Mautu |
| Shaun Ongapa |
| Edward Ramit |
| Jacky Winas |
Squad to the 2023 Oceania 7s:
| Players |
|---|
| Derrick Voku |
| Emmanuel Alfred |
| Benjamin Boas |
| Benson Hayai |
| Benjamin Kennedy |
| Mhustapha Kura |
| Kunak Late |
| Kadum Mais |
| Richard Mautu |
| Shaun Ongapa |
| Edward Ramit |
| Jacky Winas |
| Squad to 2023 World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series - Men's tour[17] |
|---|
|
Squad to the 2022 Oceania 7s:
| Players |
|---|
| Derrick Voku |
| Emmanuel Alfred |
| Benjamin Boas |
| Benson Hayai |
| Benjamin Kennedy |
| Mhustapha Kura |
| Kunak Late |
| Kadum Mais |
| Richard Mautu |
| Shaun Ongapa |
| Edward Ramit |
| Jacky Winas |
| Squad to 2022 World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series - Men's tour[18] |
|---|
|