IN A house in Apia, Western Samoa, the country's top sevens players lounge around.
They treat the house as home and its owner as a figurehead. It is the house of Marina Schaafhausen - the true mother of all rugby managers.
Widow Schaafhausen has managed the Samoan rugby team for the last six years and has become a powerful, stabilising force behind their success in the Hong kong Sevens.
A coconut cream factory manager back home, overseeing more than 150 staff, makes her more than qualified to take care of 10 strapping rugby players - fighting men who turn to mice in her mere presence.
The 58-year-old, chain-smoking Schaafhausen, one of the first women rugby managers at the Sevens, treats the players as she would her children, of which she has nine.
Late nights, alcohol and women are strictly off-limits to her charges as they prepare for tournaments, and these rules are rarely abused.