FRIDAY MARCH 11 A meeting for all of the hosts at the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union (HKRFU) headquarters in North Point. Copies of an aide-memoire on how to help our teams - with extensive details on everything from the use of the sponsor's rugby balls to laundering the playing kit - are handed out. The only thing that sticks in my mind is that staff of the Hilton, where all the Sevens teams stay, will empty the mini-bars before the teams' arrival.
FRIDAY MARCH 18 In drizzling rain we are taken on a tour of the Hong Kong Stadium to see the new facilities. It is a remarkable sight remembering what it was like 24, or even 12 months ago. That is apart from the half of the pitch that was covered by plastic sheets for in-field seating at three rock concerts; that section now looks like a cow pasture after a napalm attack. The lugubrious-looking Peter Else, of the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union, dodges the raindrops as he says: 'We have been told the roof covers 75 per cent of the spectators. As you can see, when the wind blows, it is more like 25 per cent.' A stream of water cascades from an upper level on to some seats near us.
TUESDAY MARCH 22 I wait by the group arrivals exit at Kai Tak for the appearance of my team, the HKRFU President's Seven from London. Last-minute withdrawals by Welsh and English players mean I am not sure who exactly I am looking for amid the hundreds of Burberry-clad Japanese and Taiwanese tourists spilling out of the gate. At least I'll recognise the coach, Les Cusworth, the former England fly-half. Panic sets in an hour after the plane has landed. All the other hosts have met their teams and put them on the bus to the Hilton. As it starts to pull out I scuttle on and shout: 'Is anyone here from the President's Seven?' A group of seriously-fit looking males shout back: 'Yes, we are.' Les Cusworth is 10,000 kilometres distant at his home in England. He is not coming. Nor is the manager, another legendary fly-half, Scotsman Ian McGeechan, because his mother is very ill. In their place is the less-than-legendary scrum-half Richard (Churches) Churchill, pulled from his administration job with the English Rugby Football Union to bring the team out.
Alistair Merricks, another team host, is already at the Hilton. He had met the team's two Fijian players, Eparama Tuvunivono and Marika Korovou at Kai Tak the night before. As Churchill settles into the room he will share with player Chris (Sheas) Sheasby, I notice the mini-bar is still neatly packed with beer and spirits.
WEDNESDAY MARCH 23 The team had gone out on a bonding exercise last night. This consisted of a long session at Oscar's in Lan Kwai Fong where the happy hour lasted all night, followed by a ritual visit to Joe Bananas - a nightclub with an almost talismanic reputation among overseas rugby players for obscure reasons that have longed baffled Hong Kong residents. Some members of the party grumble because the club displays memorabilia with the legend 'Joe Bananas welcomes the Barbarians' - even though the invitational side is not competing in the Sevens this year.
As I wait in the lobby, a painting of All Black Kevin Schuler falls on the head of a diminutive Portuguese player in an armchair below. When the President's Seven arrive most look as if they also have been clobbered over the head - the deadening agony of a hangover and the debilitating effect of jet-lag combined.