John Vaili from Samoa chased by Fabio Conceicao from Portugal. Photo: KLAUDIA RADECKA
The Samoa men's sevens team has qualified for a playoff to try and return to the sport's top tier.
Samoa defeated Canada 28-5 in the semifinals of the second-tier World Rugby Sevens Challenger event in Krakow, Poland, before going down to Portugal 24-19 in the final.
But the result was enough to see them qualify for the promotion/relegation tournament in Los Angeles (LA) next month.
The top four teams from the challenger series will play off with the bottom teams from the main series, the HSBC SVNS Series.
Samoa's Meni Manase said the qualification means a lot to the team's coaches and families.
"Our first goal was to qualify for LA and that's ticked off," he said.
"It feels so unreal."
Samoa was relegated from the top tier in the 2024 grand final weekend, as was Canada.
Also qualifying for this year's LA playoff tournament out of the second tier were Canada, Germany and Portugal. On the women's side, Colombia, Argentina, Kenya, and South Africa.
The Tonga men's team and the Samoa women's team missed out on a spot at the promotion/relegation playoff.
LA will also see the top eight men's and women's teams at the end of the just-finished season compete for the world championship. Fiji is the only Pacific Island nation in the top eight.
The men, who won the men's Singapore sevens earlier this month, are pooled with Spain, Australia and New Zealand.
The Fijiana women's side is in Pool B with Australia, France, and the USA.
The LA tournament, to be hosted in the venue planned for rugby sevens at the LA Olympic Games, is scheduled for 3-4 May.
