Samoa Eyes Olympic Berth at Oceania 7s

Manu Samoa Sevens put up a valiant effort in the final leg of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in London to claim the bronze medal in a brilliant win over the All Blacks Sevens. But it wasn’t enough to claim an automatic spot for next year’s Olympics in Paris as Australia grabbed the last spot by finishing fifth overall (135 points) on the points table.

However, Samoa gets another chance to qualify for the Olympics if they win the Oceania Sevens later this year. With Australia, Fiji and series winner New Zealand already qualified, it makes Samoa’s job easier. But head coach Muliagatele Brian Lima won’t be taking anything for granted given how competitive the series has become in recent years and Samoa’s past difficulties in qualifying – think back to Rio 2016 and the lesson by Spain.

Samoa finished the 2022-2023 World Series in sixth place with 134 points, the highlight coming in South Africa with a win in the Cape Town 7s. There were also good results in Hong Kong and Singapore as Muliagatele’s young squad showed loads of potential.

The other highlight came when star player, Va’a Apelu Maliko, was crowned the World Rugby Seven Series top tryscorer for 2022-2023 with 50 tries (252 points, included 1 conversion) from 62 games, averaging 4.01 point per game across the season. He was also named the DHL Impact Player of the Series for the most consistency and delivered the greatest impact against four key criteria – carries, offloads, line-breaks, and tackles. Maliko made 41 breaks, 122 tackles, 55 offloads and 214 carries throughout the 11 events. Maliko was also named in the Series Dream Team and is a front runner for the World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year award.