Lima's men make up for just falling short of the cup competition by thrashing fledgling continental side
Samoa consoled themselves with plate glory yesterday after their failure to reach the Melrose Cup, beating Portugal 29-7 in the final.
Captain Brian Lima, only a youngster when Western Samoa won the Hong Kong Sevens in 1993, was able to win silverware at the Hong Kong Stadium once again as Samoa's elite pedigree proved too much for the learning Portuguese.
While Lima was the steadying influence in his side, David Lemi appears to be a future star with a tournament-high 68 points, including two tries in the final. Sailosi Tagicakibau also scored a brace while Junior Leota crossed the line once for Samoa, whose victory in the final was never in doubt once they took a 15-7 lead soon after the break. Diogo Coutinho scored the only try for Portugal, who reached the final after victories over Tunisia (21-12) in the quarter-finals and Georgia (29-5) in the semis.
For Samoa, their plate campaign nearly came unstuck in the quarter-finals, where they huffed and puffed to a 19-14 victory over Ireland. The Irish led 14-12 at half-time and looked set to cause an upset. Samoa refused to give up and in the final seconds Gaolo Elisara snatched a late winning try.
The Samoans also found it tough going against Russia in the semi-finals, where the early exchanges turned into a tit-for-tat try-scoring competition between Lemi and Russia's pint-sized playmaker Alexandre Yanyuskin, one of the stars of the tournament. Lemi won that try-count three to one as Samoa emerged 29-12 winners.
The Russians never made it easy for Samoa, though, and even took the lead, 12-10, for a brief period of time just after the break.