Samoa Under 20s rugby coach Mahonri Schwalger wants to remain in charge despite the team being relegated to the second tier Junior World Trophy.
The Baby Manu finished last on their return to the Junior World Championship, following a winless campaign in Georgia last month.
Schwalger joined the team as a technical advisor for the Oceania Championship but assumed the top job in May, a few weeks out from the Junior World Championship, after former coach JP Leota was forced to resign by the Samoa Rugby Union.
He also rejected allegations of severe mistreatment against the SRU by the family of Ethan Lolesio, who missed out on selection for the World Cup.
Samoa perform the Siva Tau at the World Rugby U20 Championship. Photo: Lasha Kuprashvili / World Rugby
Mahonri Schwalger said coming up against top junior nations like England and Australia was a real eye opener for his squad.
"The thing that we need to learn as a small nation, we've got to make sure we don't give these guys the sort of opportunities to play that (Northern Hemisphere) sort of game," he said.
"In terms of we give away a lot of penalties, they kick it down, they're driving mauls and they sort of play to their strengths and we realise that if we do play in the open game we're used to here in our side [of the world] like New Zealand and Australia and Samoa and Fiji, that open sort of style
"It's just a lot of learning from our kids and I would say we're pretty close to those sort of nations at the level they're playing but compared to New Zealand - New Zealand is on a different level."
England's Dominic Morris breaks clear to score his second try against Samoa. Photo: Lasha Kuprashvili/ World Rugby.
The Baby Manu got within seven points of Australia during the pool stage but suffered heavy defeats against England, Wales, Ireland and Argentina.
"I was pretty disappointed. We had a few chances, especially the Australian game, but the kids weren't consistent to sort of hold on for that same performance for 80 minutes and sort of drag them into our game," Schwalger said.
"The game against Wales we sort of performed good in the second half and we can't perform in the first half so if we do want to compete with the top teams we've got to make sure that we put on that 100 percent sort of performance for 80 minutes."
Former Manu Samoa captain Mahonri Schwalger taking a scrum session at the Rugby Academy of Samoa. Photo: Rugby Academy Samoa
Despite the challenges that engulfed the team both on and off the field, Schwalger said he wanted to stay on and help the team return to the top tier of junior rugby again.
"Yes I'm still keen to be involved because I've got a rugby academy here so for me I did the rugby academy for one reason is trying to develop our kids here in the islands," he said.
"And all these kids here in the islands they always want to play for Samoa so for me it's a passion of mine, I want to be involved in rugby.
"And I guess for the Under 20s, for me, I'm still looking forward to being involved and I guess for that short period of time I had (in charge of the team) I experienced a lot and I learnt a lot from it."