Commonwealth Games Rugby 7’s – The dress rehearsal for Rio 2016

The inclusion of Rugby 7’s in the Olympics at Rio in 2016 has ramped up its profile across the sporting world. In Glasgow this weekend at the home of the famous Glasgow Rangers football club, Ibrox Park, a portent of the quality of that Olympic tournament will be on show.

The Commonwealth games brings together most of the top teams of the IRB sevens series and a pecking order for Rio will emerge. Teams will be able to benchmark their preparation and try out combinations and strategies. Sevens players at this elite level tend to be specialists and only Scotland have raided their 15 a side international team to augment their squad with the significant arrival of Scottish full internationals Stuart Hogg and Sean Lamont. The rest of the teams bring some of the strongest players in the world to the tournament. Anyone who has played rugby 7’s knows that it is a game of great speed that tests the players’ fitness, skills, stamina and heart to an extraordinary degree. As Sir Gordon Tietjens, the legendary NZ sevens coach puts it, “Standards in 7’s rugby are more than the physical and mental, they’re just not one thing.” There is no place to hide on the field of play, one on ones are omnipresent and any errors are always costly. The team that wins this tournament will be not just well prepared and supremely fit, that is a given, but the team that will ultimately emerge with the gold medal will be the one that has the ability to change plans on the hoof and the courage to express itself both individually and collectively.

In these days of over coached testosterone chess that is the 15 a side game the game of 7’s is a refreshing change which allows the mavericks, the smaller cleverer players a place on the big stage. Scotland is the spiritual home of rugby 7’s and the stadium will be full and raucous and they will know that NZ are the team to beat. There are though several teams capable of denying NZ their fifth consecutive Gold medal, notably England and their captain Tom Mitchell who reckons his side could just pull off something special. There are certain advantages to us," Mitchell told Press Association Sport. "We haven't had to travel far which is a benefit and where we are after the training we've done, we're in a really strong position so we're hoping to do very well and it's certainly realistic to be up there. Speaking to some of the guys who were in Delhi four years ago, a fourth place finish is pretty tough to swallow and everyone is pretty determined to go well this year. We've worked incredibly hard over the last couple of months to get things right, and working hard in the gym as well to get in the best possible shape for it. If we back ourselves and do what we know we can do we can do well against anyone." England might not enjoy great support at Ibrox yet they do have the pedigree to go deep in the tournament but with five of the six best teams in the world in Glasgow they know anything could happen.

But despite that Mitchell and his peers know that the team to beat will be NZ with a record of zero defeats in four Commonwealth Games and a "brutal" training regime behind them, every team will be chasing down New Zealand, with Captain DJ Forbes telling BBC Sport the rigorous work Sir Gordon Tietjens has been putting the team through.  "His methods are old school - 'brutal' is one of the words I'm sure a lot of people will agree with," said the forward, with Tietjens revealing why he has put his team through the mill. "It's fair comment that I'm quite hard, but I also believe I'm quite fair.”

It is the unpredictable nature of the tournament that makes it the most wanted ticket in town, and the appearance of several of the smaller teams adds great spice to the mix.

Pool A of New Zealand, Canada, Scotland and Barbados is arguably the toughest of the four due to three IRB Series core nations being involved. Many expect the fixture at 21:04 between the Canadians and Scots to be vital in deciding who joins the Kiwis in the Cup.

Pool B consists of South Africa, Kenya, Cook Islands and Trinidad and Tobago

Pool C has Samoa, Wales, Papua New Guinea and Malaysia battling for progression to Sunday's elite competition.

Pool D pits England with Australia, Sri Lanka and Uganda in what should be a Cup progression formality for the more established duo on Day One.

The bookies rarely make a mistake and they have New Zealand as favourites and South Africa, England, Australia, Samoa and Canada their closest rivals, Kenya are a team not to be written off. It is very hard to see beyond a NZ victory and they will deserve it because they never take anything for granted. Expectation back home will drive them on they will not want to disappoint themselves and their supporters. “We find that every team that plays New Zealand goes into a game saying 'we've got nothing to lose'. So we treat every game like a final.” Is how Tietjens has prepared his team. To win the gold medal at Glasgow 2014will require a supreme effort, 100% on the gas for two days. Whoever emerges victorious will know that they will have earned the plaudits.