The chairman of the American Samoa Rugby Union Togiola Tulafono has issued the following statement:
“With much regret the ASRU is compelled to cancel the International side of the Annual Flag Day 7s Rugby Tournament.
“We have notified the Samoa Rugby Union where most of our international teams come from and also the individual teams from the provincial unions in Samoa who expressed interest to play in our Flag Day event,.
“It is regrettable that we did not have sufficient time to address the issues that have come up last week, and we looked at alternatives with no success.
“We assure the international rugby community and our Union supporters that we will not be going through this again next year.
“And the international side of the Flag Day 7s will return next year.
“We are proceeding with our local Union teams, and will have the competition continuing on April 21 and 22 as scheduled.
“The entry fee is now reduced to $US200 for mens teams, $US100 for womens teams and high school entries are free.
“We expect that the competition will still be as exciting and pleasant with our local teams,
“This year we have new entries from local teams and it will be interesting to watch their debut.
“Come out and enjoy Rugby Sevens Friday, April 21 and Saturday, April 22.
“Deadline for entries have now moved to Tuesday, April 18.
“For any questions, please contact Tournament Director Peseta Sa Mavaega 733-1607, talofa36@yahoo.com or Falefata Moli Lemana 770-2750, moli.lemana@doc.as for entries.”
