Manu Samoa 7s

The Brian Lima coached side won their opening match 17-12 against Ireland.

Samoa’s Paul Scanlan scored the first try of the match before Ireland played a good comeback scoring two consecutive tries from Jordan Conroy.

But that was not enough to maintain their lead after Samoa came firing back with tries from Leueli Leitufia and Motu Opetai.

Samoa also won their second match 26-7 against USA, today.

Samoa will face Spain in their next match at the tournament.

The team is in the same pool with USA, Ireland and Spain.

The Brian Lima coached side is 8 points behind New Zealand, who is now ranked top of the table with 63 points.

USA is in second place with 61 points, Argentina in third with 59 points ahead of South Africa with 57 points.

With four legs down and seven to go this season, the Top 9 teams are all still in the running to take out the HSBC 2022-2023 Sevens World Series.

The Sydney 7s begins tomorrow and ends on Sunday.

The thanksgiving service was attended by Afioga i le Ao Mamalu o le Malo Tuimaleali'ifano Va'aletoa Sualauvi II and Masiofo, Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa and Members of the Cabinet, Toa Samoa team and management, and Manu Samoa 7s team with family and friends.

Savali newspaper reports the church service was led by National Council of Churches (NCC) Chairman Rev. Aisoli Iuli.

Toa Samoa created history when they became the first Pacific team to play in the Rugby League World Cup last month.

The team defeated New Zealand 12-7 in the main final.

Samoa created an upset in the semifinals after defeating the host nation, South Africa 10-7 with a winning penalty kick from Faafoi Falaniko in the extra time.

This is after they defeated Argentina 21-10 in the quarterfinals yesterday.

The Brian Lima coached side kick started their campaign with 21-10 win against Uruguay at the tournament.

This was before they defeated Japan 45-0 in their second pool game and lost to Ireland 14-21 in their final pool game.

The game is scheduled for 2.06pm (Samoa Time).

Samoa will then play against Japan in their second game tomorrow before they take on Ireland on Sunday, 11 December.

The Brian Lima coached side is currently ranked 9th place in the overall standings of the World Rugby Sevens Series.

On the women's side, Fiji will play New Zealand, Great Britain and Brazil in pool play.

The tournament - leg three of 10 tournaments - consists of 16 men's and 12 women's teams.

Samoa Global News reports the French have been in great form this weekend and they launched wave after wave of attack, catapulted by Samoa conceding four penalties in the first four minutes.

The French took a 7-0 halftime lead.

The young all-local Manu 7s side has moved Samoa up by 5 places on the HSCB World Series standings from 15th to 10th after Toulouse.

Samoa will go on to London for the next leg of the HSBC World Sevens Series, their fourth tournament since returning to the circuit.

Photo Manu Samoa Sevens/Facebook 

The Manu are a fixture on the World Sevens Series but head coach Sir Gordon Tietjens said, after travelling across the globe, it will be really special for the team to play in front of their own supporters.

"It's really exciting - the players have never played here in Samoa and playing in front of their family and friends, after a pretty good year in the World Series, is pretty exciting for them."

"They're energised, enthused, they've had a little bit of time off but they've worked particularly hard in the last couple of weeks and they're looking forward to it."

7s veterans Fautua Otto, Tom Iosefo and Falemiga Selesele have been named in the squad.

Samoa has been drawn with New Zealand, Argentina and USA.

The Dubai 7s will be held from the 1st to the 3rd of next month.

Final squad for Dubai, Cape Town:

The side stunned sevens fans by beating Fiji 28-24 in the opening match of the Las Vegas Sevens last weekend.