The local governing body of a new sport called tag has cancelled all its international tournaments and deferred them to next year.

The Samoa Tag Incorporated and Pacific Tag Federation Secretary, Johannes Uili, confirmed in an email to the Samoa Observer that all their tournaments have been axed and moved to 2021 with the dates yet to be confirmed.

"All our international tournaments for this year are all canceled and will be open for next year 2021, dates are still not yet confirmed but our local tournaments are postponed to September, October and November," he said in an email.

One of the tournaments which was scheduled to be hosted in American Samoa in April this year was postponed to July and then postponed indefinitely to 2021.

In a previous interview with Mr Uili, he mentioned that since the sport is still new to Samoa, it is the only sport where there is no physical contact between players. 

He also mentioned in his email that for training and preparation, he couldn't say much as their executive members are yet to meet.

"Executive members will have their meetings, maybe next week or so to finalise stuff for the teams," he added.

A Titans tag team player, Frances Gaufa Salesa, told Samoa Observer how she prepared for the upcoming international tournaments which were then cancelled.

"I was looking forward to the upcoming tournaments but we also need to be very cautious of the virus, because it is no joke," she said.

One of few women to take up the sport when it was first introduced in 2017, Ms Salesa said playing tag rugby is fun and having the support of her team makes it even more exciting.

"As an elite player at this stage, it's disappointing but it actually has a positive effect for us players. It gives us more time to train and to reflect on where we need to better ourselves,” she added. “For me, playing for the Titans is such a great experience, it has given me a lot of opportunities and great exposure to the world of sports.” 

In the Titans squad, they are encouraged to push and support each other in whatever they do and advocate for gender equality. 

"We support each other in everything we do, for instance, if one of us takes Taekwondo we would all try and learn Taekwondo to show our support for our team members. That is how the Titans have always helped us throughout the years, our team consists of different girls with different sports backgrounds," she added.