The Cook Islands will travel to Chile for the inaugural IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy in April after beating Papua New Guinea 29-7 in their one-off regional qualifier in Auckland on Saturday.
Wings Tahiri Elikana and Eddie Nicholas, scrum half Terrence Glassie and prop Mattew Latham scored the Cook Islands’ four tries in the victory with centre Ronnie Maui kicking two of their penalties and fly half Aaron Turley the other.
The Cook Islands had led 11-0 at half time in the match at Liston Park and stretched that advantage to take their place alongside host nation Chile, Uruguay, Georgia, Romania, Namibia, Jamaica and Korea at the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy 2008.
The IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy is part of a restructuring of age grade rugby with the IRB Under 19 and Under 21 World Championships being replaced by two tournaments at Under 20 level with a promotion and relegation system operating between the two.
The winner of the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy in Chile will graduate to the IRB Junior World Championship in 2009, swapping places with the team who finishes bottom of the 16-team tournament to be held at four regional venues in Wales from 6-22 June.
The match schedule for the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy will be announced in due course.
