Samoa women’s sevens coach Auimatagi Sapani believes Olympic qualification could help unite the Pacific Island nation.
Both the Manusina and their male counterparts remain in contention for a place at Tokyo 2020, and are scheduled to compete in the Olympic repechage tournament in Monaco next month.
The two teams came close to qualifying for Rio 2016, as Manu Samoa lost the repechage final to Spain on the last play of the match, while the country’s women were beaten by Kazakhstan in their quarter-final.
Should either team be able to secure their place at a first Games, then Sapani hopes it can provide some cheer for a country currently in political deadlock.
“I want Samoans to come together in Samoa to celebrate if Manusina qualify for the Olympics,” he told World Rugby.
“We are confident we have the best team, who wants to qualify for the Olympics. Our players have international experience and they've played the best sevens teams in the world, like Australia, Fiji and New Zealand.
“We have players who are free on the field and they contribute to the watchability of the games.”