The Cook Islands have their sights set on the one remaining place at the inaugural IRB Junior Rugby World Trophy in April, a place that will be theirs if they can beat Papua New Guinea in a one-off qualifier in Auckland on Saturday.
A victory will not only see them join hosts Chile, Uruguay, Namibia, Jamaica, Korea, Georgia and Romania in the eight-team event, but also give the Cook Islands the chance they crave to test themselves against other nations on a world stage.
Their appetite for such competition was well and truly whetted at the IRB Under 19 World Championship in Belfast last year, the first time a Cook Islands side had every qualified for such an event at any age level.
The Cook Islands may have failed to win any matches in Belfast – the closest they came being a 10-10 draw with Chinese Taipei in Division B – but as captain Papa Mataroa said at the time the important thing was what they learned to help them in the future.
Mataroa is one of nine players from that tournament who have made new coach Nooroa Maui’s squad for this one-off regional qualifier and he is certainly not underestimating the importance that experience has played in their preparations.
“It was an awesome experience … even though the scores didn’t work in our favour, the experience definitely taught us a few lessons,” admitted Mataroa, who was one of only two 19 year olds in the team when the tournament began in Belfast last April.
Work hard to reap rewards
“We are most definitely approaching this game differently because we have experienced playing at this level and we strive to do better than last year and to lift our level to another standard. We want to do better than we did last year.”
Mataroa believes the experience of the nine players in Belfast will help the coaching staff, while for him personally the Under 19 World Championship has taught him “never to take any team easily” and he won’t be doing that with Papua New Guinea.
“We are looking at keeping our things low key and underestimating Papua New Guinea is the last thing we want to think about, but we are very confident getting into this game,” the back row said.
“It would be a huge achievement for us [to qualify]. We are a small nation, but if you put all you have into the game, you will achieve your goals easily.”
Maui echoes the sentiment, saying it would be “huge for our nation” if the Cook Islands can repeat their 22-21 defeat of Papua New Guinea that put them on the plane to Belfast, while also admitting that preparations have been different this time around.
“The preparations have been a lot better than last year in utilising specialised coaches to assist,” he explained. “We currently have nine players from last year and their experience on the world stage will be a huge impact and bring leadership to those around them.
“Our preparations have been great with a humble approach since the start. We expect a fast and unorthodox playing style from Papua New Guinea, while our strengths are the players in total with our key players the versatile loose forwards.”
