Round table discussion on rugby sevens' future

With rugby sevens heading to the Olympics in 2016, World Series sponsors HSBC held a round-table discussion about how that will affect the sport. Hosted by Giles Morgan, the bank's global head of sponsorship and events, participants included Trevor Gregory, chairman of the HKRFU; Seb Coe, chairman of the British Olympic Association; sevens legend Waisale Serevi; Beth Coalter, World Series tournament director; Avan Lee, IRB commercial manager; journalists from The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, Sports Illustrated, China Daily, and the South China Morning Post's James Porteous. These are excerpts from a wide-ranging conversation:

Hong Kong is the pinnacle of the series, the No 1 tournament in a number of ways. Sevens is on the crest of a wave, now an Olympic sport and it's up to all stakeholders to make sure the IOC keeps sevens in the Olympics. I think a big challenge for the IRB is that sevens doesn't cannibalise the 15s version of the game. Sevens is obviously very attractive, but we need to hold true to our values that 15s and sevens need to stand together.

We've got two Olympics to make it count - 15s isn't truly global whereas at the moment sevens is certainly going into new countries, it's almost like a new frontier.