A legacy was passed on when Muliagatele Brian Lima’s son BJ Lima made his debut during the Sydney leg of the World Sevens Series and he marked it with a try.

As a father, it was a proud moment for the coach knowing what a debut game means for a player especially when it is the national side.

The senior Lima wants to clear out something. He said there was no free ride with the team and all players in the squad have earned a spot.

He said selection depended on performance during training and the fitness of other players.

“Every player has to work hard for a spot in the team and that goes for any player. You earn a spot in the team and it is not gifted to you,” Muliagatele said.

“I am happy that he (BJ Lima) worked hard for his spot in the team and as a father it was good to see him playing in the blue jersey but I am also the coach and for me a player’s performance will determine his position in the squad.”

BJ Lima was brought in as an injury replacement and has now played two games for Samoa and scored one try. He remains in the extended squad but will only know if he has made the squad.

The Manu Sevens team have wrapped up training in Samoa and headed to Auckland on Tuesday morning to transit to the U.S. for the upcoming Los Angeles HSBC Rugby Series.

The side has been pooled with New Zealand, USA and Chile in Pool A of the American leg of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.

According to Muliagatele they remain optimistic of securing an automatic spot to the Olympic Games in Paris next year.

“The tournaments have become tougher. You can see that by the scores in the games and the mixed results that we have had in the past two tournaments,” he said.

“We did make mistakes but we have been working on that and I am sure that we will be doing our best in the next tournaments. We still aspire for a top four finish if not winning the series but our Olympic aspirations remain.

“I have just had a year with the boys and we have another year until the Olympic Games but the focus right now is playing in the World Sevens Series. But I feel we will get there.”

Samoa has 68 points on the series leaderboard and are tied at third with France. At the end of the season this year, the top four teams will get an automatic place in the Olympic Games in Paris.

Samoa faces USA in their opening game on Sunday 26 February at 6.59am followed by Chile at 10.12am and face New Zealand in their last pool game at 1.30pm.