The Manu Samoa 7s coach Muliagatele Brian Lima says his team needs more tournaments in order to find out their match fitness.

Muliagatele told the Samoa Observer in an interview that exposure to more tournaments will enable his players to test their fitness levels and the coaches can then determine the form of fitness training needed.

"The sevens is more on fitness. It has a different level of fitness. They are needed to be prepared mentally and physically. So that is how we are preparing the chosen one. This kind of training is new to them, they are not used to it," he said. "We need more tournaments to test their fitness, because even though they are training here, but we need those tournaments to see where they’re at with their fitness. 

“The fitness that we see during our training is very different from match fitness. Some will get worn out once they’re in contact, and that’s where we need to see what we can do to toughen their fitness.”

Muliaga believes that tournaments are also needed for the team's exposure and he can use it to see which areas they need to focus on in terms of improving.

For the 7s team, they did not have a long break and according to the head coach, they are trying to change the players’ mindset as he knows that when it’s the holiday season, the players only think of having a good time with no training.

"The aim of the sevens is to get back on the normal training at the beginning of the year; however, we continued our training throughout the holiday season,” he added. “In the week of Christmas, we had two training and in the week of New Year, we also had two-day training.

"And also not enjoying a long vacation for the Christmas and New Year holidays because when they return we will start all over again.

"And then they rested for that week, and to spend time with their families. We had them back straight after so that when the year starts it won’t be that difficult to get them back on track and they don’t need to have a long break.”

Muliagatele gave each player’s training program while they were on holidays to ensure that they keep fit and are ready for the upcoming internal tournament.

"I’ve also given out each player their training program which they will do individually. Now that the year has started we have brought them back and started with our sevens training," he said.