Samoa’s Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has acknowledged the many rugby development programmes including the Samoa Independence International 7s that was officially opened today.
"It’s exciting to see the many teams visiting Samoa and especially the teams from Fiji, who are here to compete in our SII sevens this year," he said.
"I have been informed by the director of the tournament that this would be the most exciting tournament in the history of the SII sevens."
This year’s competition includes teams from Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. Last year, the SII sevens competition saw legend international sevens player, Waisale Serevi spearhead the programme as its ambassador, this year Samoan Legend Uale Mai is taking the lead.
The Prime Minister though hasn’t let the local teams go without a challenge.
"As you can see, we have a lot of teams here today. I don’t ever want to hear that a team from overseas has won the competition, that’s the attitude of true warriors. You don’t fear your opponent," he said.
Prime Minister Tuilaepa also spoke about the performance of the Manu Samoa Sevens team in the HSBC World Series.
"It’s surprising to see so many teams and events put together for Sevens, while our Manu Sevens are still causing frustrations and the many broken televisions sets you find in Samoa," he said.
"I hope that things like these would contribute to the continuing efforts to develop sevens rugby to a higher level," he added.
Pic: SSI 7s 2016 Ambassador and Samoan 7s legend, Uale Mai speaking to young rugby players/ Facebook