Papua New Guinea national rugby sevens team

Papua New Guinea

Union	Papua New Guinea Rugby Football Union
Nickname(s)	The Pukpuks[1]
Coach(es)	John Larry[2]
Captain(s)	Bartholomew Levi
Top scorer	Paul Joseph
Team kit
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)

Medal record
Pacific Games
	1999 Santa Rita	Team
	2007 Apia	Team
	2011 Nouméa	Team
Oceania Sevens
	2009 Papeete	Tournament
Oceania Sevens Challenge
	2022 Gatton	Tournament

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]

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.

Rugby World Cup 7s
Year	Round	Position	P	W	L	D
1993	Did not enter
1997	Did not qualify
2001
2005
2009
2013
2018	21st playoff	21st	4	2	2	0
2022	Did not qualify
Total	0 Titles	1/8	4	2	2	0

Commonwealth Games
Year	Round	Position	P	W	L	D
1998	Plate Final	10th	7	4	3	0
2002	Did not enter
2006
2010	Bowl Final	9th	6	4	2	0
2014	11th playoff	11th	5	2	3	0
2018	Group stage	9th	3	1	2	0
2022	Did not enter
Total	0 Titles	4/7	21	11	10	0

Pacific Games
Year	Round	Position	P	W	L	D
1999	Final		5	4	1	0
2003	Plate Final	5th	5	4	1	0
2007	Bronze Final		6	4	2	0
2011	Bronze Final		6	5	1	0
2015	Bronze Final	4th	7	4	3	0
2019	Did not enter
2023	Bronze Final	4th	6	4	2	0
Total	0 Titles	6/7	35	25	10	0

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 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 7s Challenge
Year	Round	Position	P	W	L	D
2022	Final		5	3	2	0

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.

The following shows leading career Papua New Guinean players based on performance in the World Rugby Sevens Series.^[15]

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.

Squad to the 2023 Pacific Games:

Squad to the 2023 Oceania 7s:

Squad to the 2022 Oceania 7s:

• Rugby union in Papua New Guinea
• Papua New Guinea women's national rugby sevens team
• Papua New Guinea national rugby union team
• Papua New Guinea women's national rugby union team

• McLaren, Bill A Visit to Hong Kong in Starmer-Smith, Nigel & Robertson, Ian (eds) The Whitbread Rugby World '90 (Lennard Books, 1989)