Samoa 7s captain

Alatasi Tupou appeared in court in Apia Frday, after earlier pleading guilty to drunk driving and driving without a licence.

His lawyers argued that a conviction would harm his international rugby career, and that he had already faced intense public scrutiny in the wake of the charges.

The district court judge, Alalatoa Rosella Papalii, accepted the argument, although she still ordered him to pay $US270 in court costs.

Tupou's plea was entered by his lawyer, Donald Kerslake, before District Court judge Alalatoa Rosella Papali'i.

During the proceedings, prosecuting lawyer Vaisala Afoa revealed that Tupou, who was suspended from all rugby for two weeks, had an outstanding warrant of arrest from 2016 for a separate charge of assault.

The Samoa Observer reports Judge Alalatoa granted an application by the defence counsel to cancel the warrant of arrest against Tupou and referred the matter to the Family and Violence Court.

Sentencing has been set for next Friday.

The 30 year old was charged by police in the early hours of Sunday morning, before the team left the country for the final two World Series tournaments in London and Paris.

Tupou, who has two test caps for Manu Samoa, will front a disciplinary hearing upon his arrival back in the country.

"SRU expects high standard of conduct from all players and management representing our country with a zero tolerance of any misconduct within any Manu Samoa team," said SRU High Performance Unit General Manager Zane Hilton.