It maybe fate or just luck but Sir Gordon Tietjens’ first game in charge of the Samoan 7s team will be against his former team the All Blacks at the Wellington 7s.
Tietjens who was in charge of the All Blacks 7s team for 22 years stepped down after the Rio Olympics and took over the Samoan 7s coaching role from the 1st of this month.
In that time Tietjens won Commonwealth Gold, Rugby 7s World Cup and World Sevens Series with New Zealand.
Tietjens says he supposes 22 years of expectations has been lifted off his shoulders and he is looking to move Samoa up the ladder and get them to be a real force in sevens again.
The first game will also see Tietjens up against two of his former players, Tomasi Cama Jnr and Scott Waldrom who are the co-coaches of the team.
Samoa is pooled with New Zealand USA and France.
Meanwhile, the Vodafone Fiji 7s team will play Australia in their first pool match at 10.46am on Saturday before facing Japan at 2.10pm while Fiji’s last pool match will be against South Africa at 6.18pm.
The medal quarterfinals will begin at 11.38am Sunday while the semifinals will begin at 4.16pm.
The medal final will be held at 7.30pm Sunday.
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