31 Mar 2011

Visa problems disrupt PNG sevens team in Adelaide

9:25 am on 31 March 2011

Visa issues have continued to plague Pacific teams ahead of the Adelaide Sevens, which begins on Saturday.

Dale Tonawai, Waqabaca Kotobalavu and Nikola Matawalu were unable to travel to Australia with the Fiji team due to a travel ban on military workers entering the country.

Now Papua New Guinea are still waiting on a couple of players to be cleared to enter the country, leaving their coach Shane Howarth none too impressed.

"So two of my boys probably wont get here til late Thursday or at worst Friday so not the ideal buildup - just poor work by the management, to be honest. The three tours I've had twice I've had visa issues and I didn't think it would happen again but it did. That's something we'll address when we get home but I can't say I'm happy about it because it should never have happened but, as I said, you solider on. These things happen so you get through them."

PNG face England, Scotland and Argentina in pool play.