Black Watch muscles into crowd control during great Sevens security cover-up

An interesting little sideshow emerged at the weekend's Rugby World Cup Sevens, as Fiji blazed its trail to victory.

The little charade involved 400 members of the crack Black Watch squad of the British Garrison, who were crowd custodians over the three days of the tournament in place of the traditional security men of the Hong Kong Sevens, the Gurkhas.

On Friday, the first day of the tournament, the Black Watch personnel turned up in their green combats, soldier boots and white T-shirts with muscles rippling. In bold letters on their backs was the word 'security'.

By the time the weekend festivities began, there was an interesting change to their uniforms.

The word 'security' had been taped over. Word has it that the change came after a directive from above.

Because the Black Watch division wasn't meant to be acting in a security capacity - although members were apparently making a bit of pocket money for their troubles - the powers-that-be deemed its representatives were 'stewards' rather than security personnel.