The preamble to the inaugural Rugby World Cup Sevens in 1993 was hectic.
Although the atmosphere was not as fever-pitched as in the days leading up to the Hong Kong Sevens, the Murrayfield tournament caught the imagination of the Edinburgh public and the press.
Indeed, newspapers were filled with previews, personality pieces, form guides, referring mostly to performances in Hong Kong, and pictures.
Almost every angle, it seemed, had been covered. But there was one factor which had barely been taken into account - England.
The English were sevens pariahs four years ago. They had arrogantly thumbed their noses at the Hong Kong tournament, had picked a largely unknown squad and were looked down upon by the so-called sevens powers of Fiji, New Zealand, Australia and Western Samoa, who at the time were reigning Hong Kong champions.
Surely England's hotchpotch of semi-stars would be no match for the traditional giants who had honed their much-vaunted skills at the Hong Kong Stadium for almost two decades.