The upcoming Vailima Marist Touch Tournament is part of a bigger picture for the Marist St Joseph’s Sports Club.

Next week on Friday and Saturday the club will co-host the tournament with Samoa Touch Rugby Incorporated at ACP Stadium in Lotopa.

Marist president Faimalomatumua Mathew Lemisio said with tournaments like the Marist 7s, 9s and Touch, they are trying to get as close as possible to international events.

“The way we wanna host these tournaments, we wanna make sure it’s credible first and foremost.

“So that people who are coming to play in these tournaments are not coming for a Mickey Mouse platform.”

He said the little things like having player access passes and reading player’s names over the PA add up.

“We wanna create that sort of environment for our local people to have some exposure to what they expect in international tournaments.”

Faimalomatumua said because the club probably have more resources and facilities than any other in Samoa, they have a responsibility to utilise them for development throughout the country.

For example, they were happy to see Maauga Iamanu picked for the Manu Samoa 7s off the back of his play for Satalo at the Marist Sevens.

“That’s because of this platform, if Satalo didn’t perform that well in this tournament, I’m sure he would never have gotten that opportunity,” Faimalomatumua said.

“It’s those little things that really make us appreciate what we’re doing, and we want to keep doing it.”

He said it was expensive and time consuming to put on such tournaments, but completely worth it.

“Every time we see a young kid getting that opportunity, that’s priceless for us.

“Hopefully the sponsors will get the same sort of satisfaction that we’re getting out of this.”

Faimalomatumua said the Marist Touch Tournament is another platform for development

“Touch offers so much in terms of basic skills for rugby or rugby league players.

“You see players like Benji Marshall, Piri Weepu, Carlos Spencer, Shaun Johnson, they all played touch.

“Touch provided them with this opportunity to enhance their skills of passing, stepping and identifying spaces, and that’s what we see in this kind of tournament.”