AUCKLAND-BASED Lolani Koko, who almost played for New Zealand, is hoping to keep out of the limelight and just do his bit to help his side to the top of the sevens world, writes Nazvi Careem.
Koko was originally selected for the All Blacks sevens squad for Hongkong, but pulled out to play for Western Samoa.
He would not talk about his decision to withdraw from the New Zealand side but said: ''There are no stars in the Western Samoa side. We are a team.'' He did, however, relish the thought of playing, and beating, fierce Pacific Island rivals Fiji.
Fiji's reputation as sevens kings has often overshadowed Western Samoa's achievements in the 15s game, which include reaching the quarter-finals of the 1991 World Cup.
''I'm looking forward to playing Fiji if that could happen. But it's hard to say anything now. We'll see after Saturday.'' Samoa issued a warning to traditional sevens giants Fiji and New Zealand when they won the Canberra Sevens.
But they failed to produce the same form a week later in the Fiji tournament, which was dominated by the Fiji national squad and some strong provincial teams.