Samoa and Tonga have missed out on promotion up the Sevens standings after the weekend’s third-tier tournament in Dubai.
The top two men’s and women’s teams have qualified to move up to the second tier, while Samoa finished third overall in the men’s event and Tonga eighth.
Samoa had steamed into the semifinals unbeaten after wins over Colombia (26-7), Hong Kong China (31-17) and Tonga, scoring six tried to two in a 34-12 win.
But in the semifinal, Belgium proved too strong, scoring four tries to Samoa’s two for a 26-14 win, taking their place in the final and earning the promotion to the second tier.
Samoa did win the third-place playoff over Hong Kong China, 26-5.
Tonga fell to Hong Kong China in their opening match, 33-14, before beating Colombia 19-12.
That left them needing to rack up a big victory over Samoa to overhaul Hong Kong China’s points difference and claim a second semi-final slot. But Samoa proved too strong, and Tonga ended up eighth, losing to Colombia in the seventh-place playoff.
Men’s finalists Belgium and Canada have earned promotion up to SVNS 2 as have women’s finalists South Africa and Argentina.
On the women’s side, Samoa finished seventh overall after a disappointing tournament.
They had lost heavily to Argentina in their opening match, 45-0, and came out of pool play winless after losses to Colombia (21-14) and Poland 31-5).
They then lost the fifth-place playoff semifinal to Thailand, 31-10, before finally snaring a win in the seventh-place playoff, 29-0 over Mexico.
