Has there ever been a more eagerly anticipated kick-off to a Rugby World Cup? Has the prize ever been so great? Strangely, over the next three days, winning isn’t everything.
Thirty one nations have flew into the sun-kissed crystal deserts of Dubai for the fifth International Rugby Board Rugby World Cup 7s, and like all addictive page-turning dramas, it is the sub-plot, the 2016 Summer Olympiad, that has the critics glued to the action.
None more so than the four Olympic delegates, arm-in-arm with some 112 colleagues, who will be present to ‘dot the i’s and cross the t’s’ before October’s crucial meeting in Copenhagen, where the International Olympic Committee finalises two inductees - rugby, softball, netball, squash, karate, golf and roller sports - in the 2016 Games.
The IRB have been working overtime, exhaustively tackling every commercial, technical and spiritual issue, including an 80-question document commissioned by the IOC, to provide a bulletproof argument as to why rugby should join the grandest sporting stage of all.
Rugby 7s truly has a global appeal, popularly played across every continent, at every club, park and dusty dirt track, and continues to break down the blue-collared mythical association with the 15-man game.
The inclusion of a Womens competition for the first time, featuring 16 nations, should also act as a key unique selling point for the Olympic governors, not to mention a TV audience spanning 140 countries and a mass influx of rugby tourists.
It promises to be the most open tournament to date with realistic champions tipping into double-figures, rather than the same-old USA or the Soviet Union tracksuits dominating the prize-giving platform.
Kenya, yes, that renowned hotbed of rugby talent, are currently sixth in the world rankings and recently beat New Zealand for the first time in their short-history. Argentina go into the tournament full of confidence following their triumph in San Diego and you may get better odds on Australia (20/1) than Portugal (66/1) but the Wallabies live in the European minnows shadow in the world rankings too.
Honours for current Summer Olympic team sports - hockey, basketball and football - are regularly commandeered by the same old bunch.
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USA has won four of the past five mens basketball golds while the women have won all but three of the nine thus far. The football competition is largely limited to U23s and is critically seen as an auction for the biggest European clubs seeking to tap-up the brightest South American talent, Leaving hockey, which remains a minority sport despite being prosperous in under-privileged countries.
So Dubai, and its purpose-built 50,000 seated stadium might ooze the same feel of ancient Athenian auditoriums but the spectacle, and stars turning up to support the IRB’s bid, should ensure one hell of a party and thumbs-up all-round.