Samoa sevens coach Sir Gordon Tietjens says his side has run off any festive season indulgences at a series of training camps and will be fighting fit when the World Series resumes in Sydney on Friday.
The Manu 7s are in ninth place after the opening two rounds in Dubai and Cape Town.
Samoa's Tila Mealoi attacks against Fiji on day one of the Cape Town Sevens. Photo: Mike Lee - KLC fotos for World Rugby
Sir Gordon Tietjens said the squad spent two and a half weeks over the holiday period working on fitness and combinations at a series of training camps in New Zealand.
"Not only reflecting back on those first two tournaments but really getting to the levels of conditioning that we need to get to over quite a challenging period, which is always that festive season that we have," he said.
"I've always said that Samoa handles it physically very, very well but it's the pace of the game that we need to get up to speed with and that's an area that we've certainly worked I feel over the last few weeks very, very well at."
Sir Gordon Tietjens said the Wellington Sevens was a well run tournament but the city had been like a 'ghost town'. Photo: AFP
Former captain Faalemiga Selesele and Gordon Langkilde are back in the team after missing the last tournament in Cape Town but Alamanda Motuga and Samoa Toloa, who injured themselves in South Africa, remain unavailable.
"So losing those two guys with fractures is a huge dent in our side because the four of them were playing extremely well so I'm now asking my players to step up," he said.
Faalemiga Selesele returns to the Samoa squad. Photo: World Rugby / Martin Seras Lima
"That's been the real challenge getting the players who can actually fill their spot and I feel we've worked a long way towards that and Gordon Langkilde and Faalemiga Selesele have come back into the frame now.
"They're back and fully fit so those conditioning athletes we've talked about they needed to work particulary hard because they've been out of action for up to four to six weeks."
Samoa captain Alatasi Tupou. Photo: Mike Lee - KLC fotos for World Rugby
Tofatu Solia, David Afamasaga and Darren Kellet-Moore join the returning pair in the forwards, while captain Alatasi Tupou leads the backs with Murphy Paulo and Tila Mealoi flanking him in the halves and Tomasi Alosio, Neria Fomai Joe Perez, Tom Iosefo and Elisapeta Alofipo further out.
Samoa take on Fiji in a blockbusting first pool match on Friday night and will also face Cape Town winners New Zealand and Russia on Saturday.
Fiji and Samoa will square off in their opening pool match at the Sydney Sevens. Photo: Mike Lee - KLC fotos for World Rugby