Forget Saturday night fever. Friday nights are better, as Hong Kong discovered when they won for the first time in a long time on the opening night of a Hong Kong Sevens to take a huge step towards realising the dream of becoming a core team on the HSBC Sevens World Series next season.
A narrow 17-14 victory over South American champions Uruguay has left the home team needing just one win from their remaining two pool games - against Tonga and China - to enter the knockout phases in the qualifying tournament to unearth the three new core teams.
But what was important about the win was not only that it will give Hong Kong a huge boost of confidence and momentum, it will have ensured the sold-out crowd at Hong Kong Stadium will be fully behind their hometown heroes.
'We need the support of the crowd and this win will surely see them get right behind us,' said ecstatic skipper Rowan Varty.
'This is my seventh Hong Kong Sevens and I have never been in a team that won on the opening night. This is a great feeling, not only to win, but to hear the crowd screaming for us.'
There were 39,243 fans on opening night at the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens. It was a record crowd, and more importantly, there were 5,000 schoolchildren who were bused in free of charge as the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union continues its efforts to grow the game. They were all cheering hoarsely for Hong Kong.