Samoa 7s

The World Sevens Series is on hold because of the Covid-19 pandemic, while the Samoa men's and women's teams are both scheduled to contest the Final Olympic Qualification Tournament in Monaco in June.

The Samoa Rugby Union's General Manager of High Performance, Seumanu Douglas Ngau Chun, said the Manu Samoa and Manu Sina 7s squads continued to work hard throughout Christmas and New Year.

"We only gave a couple of days off and then we were back on the fourth of January for both programmes," he said.

The 25 year old pleaded guilty to misdemeanour charges in 2018 after attacking opposition players in the tunnel following Samoa's defeat by Wales.

Tom Williams suffered a broken nose and cheekbone while Luke Morgan and Ben Roach also suffered facial injuries.

Gordon Langkilde was required to pay compensation to the victims and agreed to withdraw from playing all rugby for a year.

His suspension was completed in April and the Satapulala club player returned to playing sevens in Samoa post lockdown.

The Gordon Tietjens coached side won their last pool game 19-14 against Scotland after losing to Australia 31-5 and USA 19-17.

The team went on to win the 9th place quarterfinal against Kenya 28-19 before bowing out in the category’s semifinal, losing to Argentina 28-12.

Samoa is currently in 13th place in the overall World Sevens Series points table with 23 points.

The two losses mean Samoa will miss out on the Cup quarterfinals for the fourth Series leg in a row, regardless of their result against Scotland in their final Pool C match at 5:35 pm Samoan time.

The 19-17 loss to U.S.A. was a replay of last year’s Las Vegas Sevens Cup final, and was a fittingly tight encounter with Samoa opening the scoring.

In Samoa's second match, Australia were able to monopolise possession in a 31-5 win.

Matavo was named in the squad that was announced last week for the LA and Vancouver competitions.

He starred for Vaiala at the Marist International Sevens after being declared fit from an injury.

Alamanda Motuga is still recovering from surgery and should be fit for the seventh leg of the Series in London in May, while Tuna Tuitama has also been ruled out of the next two legs with injury.

The 28-year-old winger is one of the players who has had a remarkable last season and has caught the attention of coach, Sir Gordon Tietjens.

Alosio led the team at the Dubai 7s last month.

The team will also feature Pacific Games sprint star, Kelvin Masoe and Kirisimasi Savaiinaea, who are among the players to make way from the team that featured in South Africa, with Phillip Luki joining Melani Matavao and Pesamino Iakopo in the non-travelling reserves.

Samoa made their best start to the World Sevens Series during an emotional December weekend in Dubai, which saw the team dedicate their performances to their country.

Samoa's measles epidemic claimed the lives of 83 people in Samoa, and Tietjens paid tribute to the team playing through.

"For us to perform in Dubai under all that was unbelievable really because they were really challenged mentally as a team because I think all the players in the Samoan team knew people that had been affected by the measles epidemic," he said.

Australia can secure passage to Tokyo 2020 at the Oceania Sevens by winning their section of the tournament, where Tonga and Samoa shape as their two biggest hurdles.

A strong Australian squad will play Vanuatu and Nauru on Thursday before games against American Samoa and Tonga on Friday and if they both top their pool, a likely Olympic play-off against Samoa on Saturday.

The already-qualified New Zealand and Fiji will also play in Suva, but not against Australia until the Olympic quota spot has been decided.

Forward, Almanda Motuga and Johnny Vaili have been selected in the final line up.

Motuga finished third in the overall World Sevens Series Performance tracker table with 329 points and Vaili finished in the top ten of most tries scored table with 29 points.

Vaili ihas also been selected to be part of Samoa’s Pacific Nations Cup squad for this year.

The Sir Gordon Tietjens-coached side is laced with more experienced players that will represent Samoa in the sevens rugby game which will be held on 12-13 July.

Samoa squad:

The Gordon Tietjens coached side won two of their pool games after defeating Spain 31-12 and Canada 21-19.

The team lost to USA 33-14.

Meanwhile in other quarterfinals tonight, USA will play Kenya, New Zealand to face Argentina and Fiji will meet France.

The semifinals and final will be played tomorrow.