Samoa mean business in the Sydney leg of the HSBC World Sevens Series as they put on a solid performance to beat a much favoured United States 26-7 in their second pool game.

This means that Samoa has now amassed enough points for a Cup quarterfinal after failing to make the Cup quarters last week in Hamilton.

It was Samoa’s captain Vaa Apelu Maliko who scored the first try in the second minute. Maliko has been one of the outstanding players for Samoa, and his great work rate in attack and defence has seen him not only score, but create tries as well.

Two minutes later Tuna Tuitama scored the first of his two tries before Faafoi Falaniko touched down again just before the break to have Samoa lead 19-0 at half time.

After the break it was the U.S.A. who scored first as Steve Tomasin went over in the tenth minute but the try did little to deter the Samoan rugby sevens machine.

Tuitama then replied for Samoa with a brilliant finish in the twelfth minute to hit the final nail in the U.S.A. coffin.

Samoa now has their final pool game against Spain at 4.43pm on Saturday (Samoa local time). Earlier on Ireland defeated Spain 26-0.

The results mean that Samoa is the only undefeated team in the pool. U.S.A. and Ireland now have one win each and a showdown has been set up between the two to see who will be the other team with Samoa to qualify for the Cup quarterfinals.