Samoa are well-placed to reclaim the Oceania Sevens Championship after a stellar performance on Day One in Apia. 

The home team, who won the tournament in both 2008 and 2009, finished the day with a 39-7 clobbering of the Solomon Islands following earlier wins over Niue (47-0), Australia (35-12) and the Cook Islands by an impressive 60-0.

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Samoa will play American Samoa in the quarter finals tomorrow, with the winner likely to meet Tonga in the semis.

On the other side of the draw Fiji are on target to meet defending champion Australia in the last four after not conceding a point on the opening day.

The top seeds kept a clean sheet as they hammered American Samoa 61-0 in their final pool match, New Caledonia 47-0, Tonga 21-0 and Papua New Guinea in a surprising 48-0 scoreline and they will play the Cook Islands in the first of the quarter finals.

Australia play an off-colour Papua New Guinea in the quarters.

Fiji and PNG had last met at the XIV Pacific Games in New Caledonia, when Fiji won 24-19 in a thriller in extra-time, and coach Joe Savou said he expected more today.

“We were a little scared after what they did to us in the Pacific Games but we changed our game plan and it worked very well,” said Savou.  “In particular our defence which denied space to the fast guys in the PNG team”.

Following a loss first up, Australia toppled the Solomons 33-10, the Cooks 31-12 and Niue 24-17 in a hard-fought encounter.

Captain Jordan Smiler was pleased with the progress during the day.

“The boys are just starting to adjust to the heat and each match we get a little bit more right,” he said. “We’ve made things a bit harder for ourselves all day but this is a new team and we’re still building and learning at this level.”

Samoa had won the clash of the day against Australia by a commanding 35-12 scoreline with Tom Iosefo scoring three tries.

Earlier, a thrilling 19-19 draw between Tonga and Papua New Guinea had kicked off the tournament, which is funded by the IRB and acts as a qualifier for the HSBC Sevens World Series.

Tonga led at halftime with tries to Paula Kata and Atelea Okati to one from Henry Liliket before Albert Levi unleashed his extraordinary pace, streaking 80m to score under the posts and give PNG a 14-12 lead.

Kata’s second looked to be the match winner, however, PNG ran the length of the field and Jason Missian scored in the corner after the hooter had sounded although he was unable to convert.

Niue surprised the Cook Islands with a deserved 19-12 win while the smaller nations – American Samoa, New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands – all gained valuable experience.

The top two non-core teams from the tournament will go to the Wellington Sevens with the top non-core team also being invited to Hong Kong.

Samoa, Fiji and Australia are core teams and therefore already part of these events. These three countries will also be part of the USA 7s February 10-12 in Las Vegas. Go to www.usasevens.com for more information and early-bird ticket deals.

Results from Day One:

Pool A

Tonga 19 Papua New Guinea 19

American Samoa 31 New Caledonia 7

Fiji 21 Tonga 0

Papua New Guinea 21 American Samoa 17

Tonga 45 New Caledonia 5

Fiji 48 Papua New Guinea 0

Tonga 26 American Samoa 5

Fiji 47 New Caledonia 0

Papua New Guinea 45 New Caledonia 7

Fiji 61 American Samoa 0

Pool B

Samoa 47 Niue 0

Cook Islands 19 Solomon Islands 7

Niue 19 Cook Islands 12

Samoa 35 Australia 12

Niue 27 Solomon Islands 7

Australia 31 Cook Islands 12

Australia 33 Solomon Islands 10

Samoa 60 Cook Islands 0

Australia 24 Niue 17

Samoa 39 Solomon Islands 7

Quarter finals

Fiji v Cook Islands

Papua New Guinea v Australia

Tonga v Niue

Samoa v American Samoa

Playoff match

New Caledonia v Solomon Island

The Canadian 7s team heads into this weekend's Pan American Games tournament with a sense of the unknown, due to a short playing history against some of its Pool B opponents. 

While Canada and the USA are familiar foe, Geraint John admits his side must focus on its own abilities when facing all opponents, particularly Chile and Brazil.

"We're preparing for all three opponents as well as we can," John said. "We're not taking anything for granted. Against Chile and Brazil we have to make sure we do what we're good at. We're concentrating on what we're doing, rather than the opposition. 

"Chile and Brazil are a bit of unknowns to us because they're not on the circuit, so we can't take them lightly."

Canada heads into the tournament on the back of the 2010-11 IRB sevens circuit with a bowl win in Hong Kong and shield win in Scotland.

Canada and their opponents directly to the south met twice on the 2010-11 circuit, trading results.

The States got the upper hand in the shield semifinals, 31-7, over Canada. While Canada claimed a 19-15 in the shield quarter-finals in Las Vegas.

"We play the USA on Saturday and could potentially play them in the semifinal, so I think we'll be taking a close look at each other on Saturday," John said. "But we still have to focus on Chile and Brazil.”

The South American nations are clearly taking a determined approach to the tournament, with Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay recently involved in a tournament together.

Brazil recently placed third in the 2011 South American Sevens and will be looking to prove themselves to the world, as they prepare to host sevens rugby during the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The Brazilian team is considered a strong nation in its region and finished 10th in the 2009 sevens World Cup in Dubai.

Canada's last encounter with Chile was at the San Diego sevens in 2007, where the men from the Great White North lost 19-17.

Chile has spent some time on the IRB circuit, where they were runners up to Australia in the shield final in 2008.

Despite the unknown element surrounding his team's South American opponents, John has told his squad how important it is to treat each game like the final.

"We can't afford to take anyone lightly," he said. "Everyone's been preparing for this tournament and is taking it seriously."

They must also take serious the crossover from 15s to 7s. Eight of the 12 Canada players were just in the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand. Switching from a 15s mindset to 7s isn’t easy.

"All the guys who came in from the World Cup have sevens experience and they all have leadership roles," said 7s impresario Phil Mack. "They've been in basically a professional rugby environment for nine weeks and you can really see them bring that to the tournament. It's been a pretty seamless transition."

Mack believes their time together in any environment helps team cohesion.

"The squad is working well," Mack said. "There's a lot of communication on the field, which is extremely important in sevens. The guys from the Rugby World Cup squad are all extremely polished after being at the tournament."

And third on the list – the heat and altitude. Temperatures are expected to be in the 80s and sunny this weekend, and the sun has been out all week, while there’s of course no change in altitude – Guadalajara is about a mile above sea level.

"Having the support staff here is a great help because it's allowing everyone to help prepare the players," John said. "We also want to thank Macquarie Financial and the Canadian Rugby Foundation for their continued support."