World Rugby Hall of Famer and now former coach of Manu Samoa sevens Muliagatele Brian Lima, has spoken out for the first time after his sudden axing by the CEO and Board of Lakapi Samoa.
Speaking to ET Live, Lima revealed that he and his full coaching staff and management were all notified by a letter to step down from their roles, the day before they flew out to Paris for the Olympics.
The initial contracts for the head coach and management were supposed to be completed in November of this year.
“I’m shocked and disappointed,” Muliagatele said.
He said the letter they received noted that the board decided to follow through with the termination of contracts following a meeting on June 12.
“There was no decision to terminate our contracts during that meeting on June 12,” he added.
Players sabotage team performance in Spain
While discussing his termination with ET Live, Lima also revealed another incident that happened earlier this year, which was actually the original reasoning of the meeting in question on June 12.
After failing to qualify for the 2025 World Sevens Series, Samoa had to go through a qualifying series in Spain to secure their spot for the series. They lost all their matches in Spain and failed to qualify as planned.
Returning back to Samoa after Spain, four players were investigated on June 10 by the Lakapi Samoa chair and board with suspicion of sabotaging the teams performance in Spain by purposely playing with intention to lose.
On June 12, the decision was made from the investigation that the four players were to be removed immediately from any involvement with the team including the Olympics.
Lima says that the investigation was ordered by the board and not by him. He also added that he was not aware of any ill intent from these four players, but that there were some odd signs that he should have picked up on during Spain.
“I noticed these players giving me attitude during our preparations for Spain, but I never took notice. It makes sense now” Lima said.
Results from the concluded investigation showed that the four players were not only playing to purposely lose, but were motivated by an outside factor which had a political motive or agenda.
Reflecting on his time as coach, Lima says he had wishes he was notified after the Olympics rather than a day before they flew out to Paris.
Despite all of that, he is still “proud and humbled” for all his achievements he has completed as coach and that he will always “serve Samoa”.
“I gave it all for this team, to lift the standard and our country. We hope we achieved what we wanted and had asked for for the betterment of the team. But we did our best.”
Lakapi Samoa confirmed that they will not rush into advertising for a new coach and management as there is currently no campaign for the team to work on. However, it will surely be before the Oceania 7s tournament in November.
