Women’s rugby has become an internationally high-profiled sport following the success of the 2002 and 2006 Women’s Rugby World Cups. In 2007/8, over 30 countries are vying for a place in the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2010 and for the 2009 Rugby 7s World Cup in Dubai. Samoa will be hosting the Oceania qualifier on 25 and 26 July to the Dubai event.

Timing as they say is everything. For Samoa women’s rugby, the resurgence is timed to near perfection. Currently it coincides with the IRB’s strategy of using women’s rugby to leverage the Olympic Committee (IOC) for rugby’s inclusion as an Olympic sport in the 2016 games. 

Former Chair for IRB, Syd Millar stated, “There has been much talk in the sporting world about the need for the Olympic Games to move with the times and be relevant to today’s youth, athletes and society…Rugby 7s provides the chance to modernise the Summer Olympics…It reflects the future.” In mid-February 2008, Bernard Lapasset, Millar’s successor, hired Communications agency, Vero, to push for rugby re-instatement into the Olympic Games.