As the days continue to countdown to the Oceania 7s, the PNG Palais are getting ready to take to the international stage once again in a fight to secure a spot in the Paris Olympics. PNG Women’s 7s coach, Cecil Davani told PNG HAUSBUNG that preparations have been going well so far. The Palais have been training for about six to eight weeks now and although they may have a couple of walking wounded in the team, the girls are ready to jet off to Brisbane next week for a full week of 7s Rugby. “We’ve managed to get a decent squad together so were able to cover up those injuries quickly, so far things have been going well, we’re quietly confident that we will do well at the tournament.” According to coach Davani, the core of the Palais team is made up of those that travelled for the HSBC World Seven’s Series in Sydney at the beginning of the year and the World Rugby Challengers Series in South Africa in April. Davani said there were a couple of new flyers in the team, and they are excited to see them take part. “We’ve got some experienced hands in Mavis Biyama, Fatima Rama, Alice Alois and Esther Gigimat. These girls will sort of be the foundation. They’ll be the core that we’ll build the team from.” Joanne Logona has also been called in recently, bringing her experience to the side as well. Davani stated that it’s a good dynamic team for them at the moment, with both the experience from the older girls and the talent of the younger girls both complementing each other. “Even the younger girls that are in the team, girls like Magdelene Swaki, Jessica Rifireka, and Joyce Taravuna. They’re relatively fresh internationally but they’ve been training in the system for over a year now so it’s nothing new to them in terms of how we want to play our game.” With Australia and New Zealand already qualifying for the Paris Olympics in the women’s division, the Palais now got their eyes on Fiji and Samoa, noting their dominance in the region and will be looking to put up a fight. But Davani said you can never count out teams like the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Both the men’s and women’s teams will depart for Brisbane next Tuesday.