Someone will have to tell ageing rocker Bruce Johnston you can’t throw the ball forward or tackle the man without the ball. In the US of A, they do both.
Bruce, 70, and The Beach Boys will take centre stage on the Saturday as the Sevens gets ready to go Surfin’ So Kon Po. “We’ve played the Super Bowl, but never a rugby sevens tournament before and are excited to be part of one of the world’s most iconic sports events,” he says.
For the first time – if you forget Asia’s all-girl “super group” Blush who fronted up two years ago and could hardly be heard in what in the end was an even bigger Blush for organisers – the Sevens will get a proper rock band with all the proper sound equipment.
And it will be one memorable party, says Rod Mason, the tournament operations manager, who will need all the harmony in the world to remain calm and composed as the biggest Hong Kong Sevens, with 28 teams, is staged this year.
Rod is tearing his hair out worrying about seconds and milli-seconds, and praying that games don’t over-run their allotted time. Boasting of being big is one thing, but being large also carries a fair load of problems.
Yet, the International Rugby Board’s decision to use the season-ending London Sevens as the tournament to unearth core teams for next season has led to our event being used as a pre-qualifier for 12 regional teams with aspirations of joining the big boys. This has led to the extra teams, hence nine extra games.
It has also created headaches as organisers try to squeeze in 70 games – Fiji’s victory over New Zealand in the cup final last year was the 61st and last game – in three days and in the same time period.