Samoa have kept the faith for this weekend's Cape Town Sevens, despite admitting a lack of fitness let them down in Dubai.
The Manu failed to make the cup quarter finals in the opening leg of the new World Series campaign, losing to England and New Zealand in pool play and then the United States in the playoff for ninth place.
Manu Samoa coach Stephen Betham. Photo: AFP
Interim head coach Stephen Betham said the players showed in glimpses what they are capable off but struggled with consistency and combinations and general fitness.
But he said that won't change their approach this weekend.
"We are approaching Cape Town just like we did Dubai - we're taking every match as a final. We are still sticking with the same players we had in Dubai, just to get some combinations going."
"Some of them haven't played before and that showed a bit of the field when we played: there were bits of lapses in combinations but that's no excuse," he said.
"The more we play them together the better they'll get and we're hoping we can turn a few things around this weekend."
Betham said the Cup quarter finals remain the immediate target for Samoa, who face Scotland, Wales and Uganda in pool play.
"We just have to take every game as it comes and Scotland and Wales are probably the most improved teams over the last couple of years and they play no different from Australia at the moment, the way they play the game."
"They proved last week that they're now at the top of the sevens arena and we have to measure up to it and step up to the task this week," Betham said.
Meanwhile Fiji will be hoping for an improved showing this weekend.
The reigning series champs were beaten 26-14 by South Africa in the Dubai final and last year only managed fifth place in Cape Town.
They face Japan first up this evening, followed by Kenya and France.
Samoa beat New Zealand to win the Plate title in Singapore. Photo: World Rugby / Martin Seras Lima
