Sport: Port Moresby keen to host rugby tournaments

The Governor of Papua New Guinea's National Capital District wants to see international rugby tournaments become a rugby a regular sight in Port Moresby.

Powes Parkop attended the Hong Kong Sevens over the weekend, where Fiji defended their title and the Papua New Guinea Palais reached the quarter finals of the women's World Series Qualifier.

With the chair of the PNG Rugby Union, Syd Yates, Parkop was part of a delegation that met with World Rugby vice chair Agustin Pichot at the weekend, and said there were a number of suitable venues in the PNG capital that could host rugby tournaments.

"We have two existing stadiums (Sir John Guise Stadium and the National Football Stadium) that have hosted international events, regional events, the Pacific Games, Under 20 FIFA Women's World Cup. We've also hosted the Rugby League World Cup (in 2017)," he said.

"Our own stadium, Sir Hubert Murray, should be completed this year. This is a stadium that will be owned by the city (Port Moresby) and managed by the city, under our control so we are planning for the opening of that wonderful stadium."

Rugby union has been largely neglected in PNG but the potential is there to grow local interest and use the sport's global reach to promote the country to the world, Parkop said.

"As governor of capital city, I'm looking at rugby because it's an international game and for us to partner with PNG Rugby Federation it will be a win-win," he said.

"We will be promoting the code, giving a pathway for young people, both male and female but equally leveraging the international game to promote our people and our country."

The discussions with World Rugby went well and the signs are looking good for PNG to host some lower level international tournaments in the near future, Parkop said.

"We know we have to start humbly and we can start (hosting) tournaments with second tier countries like PNG and other smaller Pacific countries - we are not really strong on rugby yet," he said.

"Under 18 (tournaments) could be also an opportunity but also we want to host the women's tournament in the Pacific and also, if possible, globally as well.

"For me as a political leader, I look at the coverage that sevens and tens gets in Fiji, New Zealand and Australia - around the world," Parkop said.

"In rugby league, we don't get that type of coverage. We hosted the Rugby League World Cup but it's only covered in perhaps Australia, New Zealand, UK, France and PNG but with rugby union it's covered globally."

Parkop said he was impressed by the performance of the PNG Palais in Hong Kong, where they finished three wins shy of earning a permanent berth on the Women's World Sevens Series.

The PNG men's and women's sevens teams both featured at the World Cup in San Francisco in July, while the men also competed at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

With years on infighting between the PNG Rugby Union and government seemingly behind them, Parkop said he believed the future was bright.

"We want to emulate the Fijians. The Fijians are a success story. We are very proud of them but we think in Papua New Guinea we can follow the same pathway and this is our plan and we stick to sevens and tens - we don't rush to fifteens," he said.

"We've got to crawl and walk before we can fly and we are trying to fly before we could even crawl and walk so our plan is to host mainly sevens and tens (tournaments), both males and females, second tier. If we could host first tier countries we are keen on that too."