Manu Samoa Seven’s former head coach, Damian McGrath, has engaged the services of a lawyer to represent him, after he’d been sacked by the Samoa Rugby Union (S.R.U.)

This was confirmed during an email conversation with Mr. McGrath.

“Thank you very much for your email, unfortunately this is now in the hands of a lawyer and I have been advised to make no comment,” he told the Samoa Observer.

The former coach then continued to thank the people of Samoa for the ongoing support he has received.

“I really appreciate the support I've received from the people of Samoa and I look forward to being able to comment in due course.”

Mr. McGrath was let go by S.R.U. last Friday regardless of the two year s still remaining on his contract.

According to a report by Radio New Zealand (R.N.Z.), despite McGrath leading his sevens squad to victory earlier this year in Paris, the decision to let him go was still made by S.R.U.

R.N.Z. also reported that CEO Faleomavaega Vincent Fepuleai said the failure to reach Rio played a major role in the Board's final decision.

"We can only pick ourselves up and look to the future. What areas are we doing well and which areas and lessons we can use to move forward," S.R.U. told R.N.Z.

The role of head coach and team manager has been advertised with the former management given the option to re-apply.