Fiji Development Sevens are the newly crowned winners of the 35th Digicel Marist International Sevens Tournament after it thumped the local BBE Vaiala club to run out 40–7 victors.

Team Fiji dominated both halves of the game, both on the scoreboard and on the field, with their confidence beating the local boys with scores 14–0 for the first half and going all out in the final half of the game to win.

In an interview with the Samoa Observer, Fiji Development's coach, Sireli Bobo gave credit to the Fijian community who were present at the field for giving moral support and especially his players for taking home the title.

"I give it to the boys because they've been looking forward to this moment for the last couple of months and I believe coming here for the tournament wasn't easy because this is my second time in Samoa and I came last time and we lost in the semi-finals," he said. "We prepared for only a week, the program was we get together before we flew out from Fiji then we train here for one week before the tournament.

"Next for the team, most of these want to represent Fiji in the Fiji Sevens national team and it's a great improvement to come here and win and for their rugby career, this is a great opportunity for them to come and showcase their talents."

The Fijian players were selected from various tournaments and clubs in Fiji prior to the tournament and it was quite a development according to the coach.

On another note, Savaii Queens from Savaii won the women's final cup, managing to edge No Idea 22–19 while Aleipata College dominated the U18 category winning against Leulumoega Fou College 28–10. There were other awards such as the best and outstanding players awarded to each of the nominated players from the various clubs.

For the men's finals or the main event of the tournament, the winners will return home to Fiji with prize money of SAT$25,000 together with the cup and gold medals for each player. The runner-up BBE Vaiala returned home with a cash prize of SAT$6,000 and silver medals for each player.

Marist Sevens Sports Club President, Pouniu Peter Schmidt said despite challenges experienced along the way while preparing for the tournament, the results were overwhelming.

"This is the 35th year and the Marist Club is now used to organising this significant event although there were some challenges," he said. "The tournament overall was fantastic and God has been with us along the way and we've seen so many improvements during all these years, especially for this tournament."

Some of these improvements include adding another category to the event such as the colleges' category which Pouniu thinks is one of the major achievements.

"Another one is for overseas teams to participate again after the lockdown and everything so everything went smoothly," Pouniu added.

There were 24 men's teams, eight women's teams and eight colleges which participated in the three-day tournament this year.