The mystery isn't that Samoa won the Cape Town 7s, or any 7s tournament for that matter—the mystery is when they don't win.
A country with an astonishing blend of powerful athletes and athletes who are fast and elusive, rugby-mad Samoa is always one of the most entertaining teams on the Sevens World Series circuit. Daring, fearless, and explosive, it is Samoa that combines physicality and insane offloads more than anyone else.
And when it all comes together, well, it's hard to imagine anyone else does it better.
Funding (or lack thereof) and the Polynesian diaspora Samoa have meant that the Samoan national 7s team has had its ups and downs.
Give an experience this Holiday—Tickets for the LA Sevens Feb 25-26 are on sale now
It doesn’t seem that long ago that Samoa was on top of the world, with World Player of the Year Mikaele Pesamino the smooth-cruising try-scorer, Lolo Lui the little general, and Alafoti Fa’osiliva the concrete block crashing down on unwary defenders. But that World Series-winning side was in 2010.
Still, they were really fun to watch, with Pesamino being the Human Torch, Lui taking the role of Mister Fantastic, and Fa’osilivi obviously the Thing, all they needed was the Invisible Woman and you’d have a perfect Fantastic Four … hmm … maybe she was there all along and we never saw her.
That all was 12 years ago, but now Samoa is back challenging the top teams. When Samoa made the semifinals in LA in August, fans were delighted in part because the Samoan community is so strong in California. But really fans were delighted because a good Samoa is good for the game.
