This morning, just hours before the national anthems of Australia and New Zealand are sung and the traditional lion dance is held, Australian Rugby Union (ARU) chief executive John O'Neill will sit down with his Japanese counterpart to hammer out the possibility of the Bledisloe Cup being held in Tokyo in 2010.
Asia holds the key to the future of rugby union in Australia. Forced to battle it out for a dwindling financial pie with other popular codes, like rugby league and Australian Rules, the ARU has taken the bold approach of placing the Wallabies in the overseas marketplace.
That is why today's spectacle will unfold at Hong Kong Stadium.
'From our perspective, our long-term vision is to engage Asia as a natural rugby market. That is the economic reality we face,' says O'Neill. 'And the way to make an investment in markets in Asia is from games like this.'
O'Neill, 57, (pictured) is no stranger to Asia. As head of the Football Federation Australia in 2004, he championed the cause for Australia to move out of Oceania and join the Asian Football Confederation. The Socceroos are now vying with the rest of Asia for a berth at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Oceania was too small for O'Neill then. 'If I had told someone three, four years ago that Adelaide United would be playing in the final of the AFC Champions League, they would have said not in my time. But today this is what is happening in Australian soccer, which has strong links with Asia.'