Manu Samoa 7s head coach Sir Gordon Tietjens has included two new players for the Las Vegas and Vancouver tournaments.

They are Melani Matavao and Maauga Iamanu who was impres­sive during the recent Marist In­ternational 7s tournament.

Veteran halfback Alatasi Tupou is ruled out due to injury, while stalwart Alamanda Motuga has been cleared for selection after suffering an injury from the Syd­ney 7s leg.

Tofatu Solia and Tila Mealoi have also been cleared for selection af­ter a long lay-off due to injury.

Sir Gordon said Samoa had been targeting a top four finish on the men‘s World Sevens Series. The Samoans won the title back in 2010 but have not finished higher than eighth in the past five World Series campaigns.

The top four teams in the upcom­ing season will earn automatic qualification for the 2020 Olym­pics and head coach Sir Gordon says, they’re determined to make it to Tokyo.

“For us it‘s a big year because Sa­moa was certainly disappointed we missed out on qualification for the (2016 Rio) Olympics a number of years back now,” he said.

“So that‘s our real goal is to obvi­ously try and make the top four to seek automatic qualification but if that wasn‘t the case then we‘ll still be going to tournaments to prove ourselves to make it into that particular tournament in 2020.”

Samoa: Alamanda Motuga, Da­vid Afamasaga, Danny Tusitala, Tofatu Solia, Joe Perez Vaigaga, Murphy Paulo Vaiala, Tila Mea­loi, Elisapeta Alofipo Salelologa, Siaosi Asofolau Vaiala. Johnny Vaili Satapuala, Johnny Vaili Sa­tapuala, Johnny Samuelu Vaiala, Melani Matavao, Ma’auga Iamanu Satalo.

Edited by Grace Narayan

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