The Manu Samoa 7s side thrashed Solomon Islands, 36-5, in their second pool match of  day one of the Pacific Games Rugby tournament at the Marist Stadium in Lotopa this afternoon.

First try was scored by Siaosi Asofolau just minutes into the first half with a successful conversion by Captain Tila Mealoi taking their lead to 7-0. 

Second converted try was by Joe Perez, with Tofatu Solia taking the teams points up to 19-0 at half time.

John Vaili scored two tries both successfully converted, with final score sealing the Manus points to 36 was by Paulo Scanlan. 

Solomon Island’s Felix Gau Solomon scored their only try in the final play. 

Head Coach Sir Gordon Tietjens said he is happy with the outcome of the second match compared to their first match where they made quite a lot of mistakes. 

“Our second game we did very well. We hit some holes, we ran a lot of pitches in this game, which set a lot difference.”

The Manus play Tonga at 4:50 (local time).

“Tonga will be particularly tough they are a proud nation, they are the team to beat with Samoa going back to qualifying for the Olympics, and they have been in the World Series this year for four tournaments, so we are quite aware of them, they were in Hong Kong as well. And also the ground being narrow as well, they’ll love the contact,” said Sir Gordon.

“There will always be improvement no matter our place in the game, set play, individually, we always look to get better, there are a lot of young boys in this team and certainly look to improve in every game and be the best they can be really. 

“When you play against big teams that have been in the World Series, you are playing a game that’s a lot quicker than experience here in Samoa, so we always try to lift our game up to that pace, and stay with them physically.”