The

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

women's national

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

team played their first international against

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

in 2016. They compete annually in the

Oceania Rugby Women's Championship Oceania Rugby Women’s Championship is an international women's rugby union competition contested by women's national teams from Oceania. The current Champions is Fiji who claimed their third Oceania title at the Championship in New Zealand. H ...

, and have not qualified for the

Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...

as yet.

History

Papua New Guinea played their first international test match at the inaugural 2016 Oceania Rugby Women's Championship against

. The tournament was also part of the qualifying process for the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup. Fiji won the match 37–10 and progressed to the

Repechage Repechage (; french: repêchage, "fishing out, rescuing") is a practice in series competitions that allows participants who failed to meet qualifying standards by a small margin to continue to the next round. A well known example is the wild car ...

tournament. The Palais competed at the 2018 Oceania Championships and finished last overall,

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

and

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

had joined the competition for the first time. At the 2019 Oceania Championships in

, the Palais played Samoa and a Black Ferns Development XV's team. They also played a consolation match against a Fijiana Development XV's team because the main team would be playing in a qualifier against Samoa for the

2021 Rugby World Cup The 2021 Rugby World Cup was the ninth staging of the women's Rugby World Cup, as organised by World Rugby. It was held from 8 October to 12 November 2022 in Auckland and Whangārei, New Zealand. It was originally scheduled to be held in 2021, ...

. The 2019 tournament had to be restructured to cater for the Tongan team due to a measles outbreak in their country. In 2020 Papua New Guinea hosted Tonga at

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New Z ...

in a repechage qualifier for the 2021 World Cup. It was the first women's test match to be played in the country. Tonga defeated PNG 36–24 and went on to meet Samoa for the repechage playoff.

Nickname change

Papua New Guinea changed their nickname from Palais, which is

Tok Pisin Tok Pisin (,Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student’s Handbook'', Edinburgh ; Tok Pisin ), often referred to by English speakers as "New Guinea Pidgin" or simply Pidgin, is a creole language spoken throughout Papua New Guinea. It is an ...

for lizard, to Cassowaries because of sponsorship restrictions. The nickname comes from the

Cassowary Cassowaries ( tpi, muruk, id, kasuari) are flightless birds of the genus ''Casuarius'' in the order Casuariiformes. They are classified as ratites (flightless birds without a keel on their sternum bones) and are native to the tropical forest ...

, a flightless bird that is regarded as the world’s most dangerous bird.

Results summary

''(Full internationals only, updated to 18 July 2022)''

Squad

Current squad

Papua New Guinea's squad to the 2023 Oceania Rugby Women's Championship.

References

External links

Papua New Guinea
on IRB.com
Papua New Guinea
on Rugbydata.com {{Rugby union in Papua New Guinea Oceanian national women's rugby union teams Rugby union in Papua New Guinea W