Is this just the usual bout of March madness or is rugby sevens about to set off on a radical course that could change the landscape of the game in this part of the world? It seems everyone has been bitten by the sevens bug, to the point that the scaled-down version of the game has gone viral in the region.
You can't escape the fact that rugby will be the name of the game for the next seven days, and even the most myopic - like the Hong Kong Tourism Board, which for so long ignored the fact the Hong Kong Sevens could be used to promote the city - will not be blind to this fact. That's especially so after the findings of a spectator survey at last year's Sevens. It showed the Sevens attracted 21,391 overseas visitors - filling more than half of the 40,000-seat Hong Kong Stadium. These fans stayed for an average six days and each spent about HK$13,000 on accommodation, shopping and dining.
The sevens bug also seems to have turned around the views of key people in charge of the game. Hong Kong head coach Dai Rees has long maintained that 15-a-side rugby is the bread and butter. But in the April edition of Rugby World, a magazine published in the UK, Rees is quoted as saying: 'Sevens suits Hong Kong better, it is probably the game of Asia.' An annoyed Rees said he was misquoted, and insisted that 15s continues to play a huge role in Hong Kong, especially with the city being ranked No 2 in Asia and at a high of 26th on the world stage.
Rees has always been a believer in 15s rugby, and says that is the engine which will drive the game forward. Talking about the progress the men's 15s team have made in recent months, he said: 'You have to set you bar high and we aim to qualify as the second Asian team [behind Japan] for the 2015 World Cup. The sevens at the 2016 Olympics in Rio is another goal in our sights, and may be a more realistic goal than the World Cup.'
So while tacitly recognising that Japan are streets ahead in the 15s game, Rees has come out strongly in support of sevens. Considering the numbers of players Hong Kong has, this is probably a sensible approach, even though Rees, in his role as head of performance, insists that both codes should be embraced rather than 'try to create competition between them'.
But not being able to afford the luxury of a large reservoir of players - many in the sevens squad also double up for 15s - Hong Kong could be caught in a quandary if Rowan Varty (who plays in the national 15s team, too) and his side do qualify and become a core team in the HSBC Sevens World Series next season.