Aust, Fiji win Rio slots

Papua New Guinea’s teams put up credible performances but in the end could not match the best of the Pacific region in crunch matches.

Australia (men’s) and Fiji (women’s) remained unbeaten over the weekend.

Australia thrashed Tonga 50-0 in its final while the Fijiana stamped their class with a 55-0 whipping of Samoa.

The Pukpuks started Day 2 with a 19-7 quarter-final win over the Cook Islands to book a semifinal berth against Australia which they lost 36-0.

Tonga surprised Samoa 41-5 in the upset of the tournament. 

The Pukpuks were then thrashed 54-0 by Samoa in the third-place playoff. 

Samoa will get another chance to qualify for Rio with their final result.

In the women’s competition, the Fiji  women were the stars of their tournament and had pace, physicality and patterns of play that were too sophisticated for its opposition. 

Fijiana beat PNG 43-0 in its last pool match on Day 2 before beating the same opposition 40-0 in the semifinal.

The Palais lost their third-place playoff 32-0 to the Cook Islands.

Results: Day 2 – Men: QF1: Tonga 47 Solomon Islands 0; QF2: Samoa 59 Nauru 0, QF3: PNG 19 Cook Islands 7, QF4: Australia 52 American Samoa 0, 5th-8th ranking Solomon Islands 31 Nauru 5, Cook Islands 24 American Samoa 19; SF1: Tonga 41 Samoa 5, SF2: Australia 36 PNG 0, 7th-8th play-off: American Samoa 33 Nauru 12, 5th-6th play-off: Solomon Islands 14 Cook Islands 17, 3rd-4th play-off: Samoa 54 PNG 0, Final: Australia 50 Tonga 0; Women ; Round 5: Samoa 7 Cook Islands 19, Fiji 43 PNG 0, SF1: Cook Islands 15 Samoa 17, SF2: Fiji 40 PNG 0, 3rd-4th play-off: Cook Islands 32 PNG 0, Final: Fiji 55 Samoa 0.