Friday was the first day of the Bluesky Sevens Tournament Finals at Lotopa and also a selection for the Manu Samoa sevens Olympic qualifying team.  

The Samoa Rugby Union (S.R.U.) Compeititons Manager, Taala Tui Komiti, spoke to the Samoa Observer at Marist rugby stadium, and said this year's tournaments would look different to its predecessors. 

“This year we have changed [... in the] past we had four or three round tournaments but this year we decided to have two rounds,” he said. 

Taala also added the purpose of this tournament is to select the players for the Manu Samoa sevens Olympic qualifying tournament at the end of this year. 

He also only sixteen teams from each round are now playing for the final rounds today and Saturday.

“The past two weeks we had the tournament round one and two, and there were about twenty-eight teams for those two rounds,” he said.

Taala said the Manu Samoa sevens head coach, Sir Gordon Tietjens, and team selectors would be watching from the sidelines.

“Also we are trying to develop rage of players who can play this kind of level of competition,” he said.

A local club coach from the Apia Maroons, Sapani Pomare, said the  tournament was a great opportunity for local players.

“I have seen that one rugby player was selected in the Manu Samoa sevens teams, and that is what I want for these boys,” he added.

Pomare told the Samoa Observer that his mind is set not only winning the tournament also to have more than one players selected from his clubs.

Taala said he saw big improvements from the teams comparing their performances on Friday to the first two rounds.  

Top Sixteen Teams

Pool A                                   Pool B                                                   Pool C                                                   

Frankies Tama Uli             Pentagon Ana Chiefs                      Vailima Marist St Josephs               

Tepatasi 1                            Apia Maroons                                    Loaded Saleimoa

BBE Vaiala                           Falealili Barbarians                           Laulii Lions

SCOPA                                  A1 Jets                                                  SSAB Moamoa

Pool D

Tanoa Samoa Tufulele

Taumeasina Island Resort

Moataa

Sataoa

Sasaai