Papua New Guinea to Host 2011 Oceania Cup

The Federation of Oceania Rugby Unions has confirmed that the Papua New Guinea Rugby Football Union (PNGRFU) will host the 2011 Oceania Cup to be held in Port Moresby, between 29 November and 8 December 2011.

The nations set to compete in the Oceania Cup are American Samoa, Cook Islands, New Caledonia, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Papua New Guinea are the defending Oceania Cup Champions.

“The PNGRFU is extremely excited at the opportunity to host the Oceania Cup in 2011. Our region boasts a rich rugby tradition, and the Oceania Cup will provide a great opportunity for the players of the Region’s Development Unions to gauge themselves against their Island rugby cousins,” said President of Papua New Guinea Rugby Union, Richard Sapias. “We also look forward to contributing towards promoting and expanding the Oceania Cup brand in the region as the stepping stone for all Oceania Development Unions to aspire to the next level of high performance rugby.”

Oceania Cup Tournament Director, Michael Groom, says that the PNGRFU has hosted major International Rugby events in past, and will deliver a successful tournament.

“In recent years the PNGRFU has hosted Rugby World Cup qualifiers and Oceania Cup Finals, they have an enthusiastic event management team and they will be excellent hosts for the participating Oceania Cup teams, officials and media,” said Groom. “We’re very excited to be taking one of our flagship events to Papua New Guinea, a Union which has achieved excellent progress in international rugby in recent years – including qualifying for the 2010 Junior World Rugby Trophy, Commonwealth Games (where they defeated Tonga and Canada to win the Bowl Final), the Asia Pacific Women’s Sevens tournament (runners up), the HSBC Sevens World Series and of course reaching the final stage of qualification for Rugby World Cup 2011. There is huge growth potential for rugby in Papua New Guinea and the hosting of the Oceania Cup is an important step in our vision for rugby in PNG.”

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