With the long awaited announcement of the National Sevens Series core teams taking place last week in the UK, we finally have some clarity on who will be taking to the field in Richmond at Rugby Rocks on June 12.

A number of the National Series teams have begun preparations for the impending season ahead with blowouts at Sunshine, Kinsale, Bury St Edmunds and London Rugby Festival.

Player registration has begun with a number of big names putting their hands up to be on the televised series this coming summer.

We've seen UR7s News Editor Robin Heymann briefly give his thoughts but I will go into more detail.

From now until the series and throughout the season, I will be publishing my National Series Power Rankings.

These will mirror where I think the power is sitting at the present time, which team has the momentum, signings of players that will make a difference, and performances on the field. Basically anything that might have an impact on the following weeks play will be shown on the rankings of the teams.

Everything is subjective and one of my favorite things is too see how right or wrong I am at the end of the season.

So every week I am going to publish my pre-series Power Rankings on where the core teams stand with tournaments and as players start to become registered. It will require me to don my detective cap to sniff around the teams to see who they plan to bring in.

We are less than 5 weeks away from what can only be described as arguably the biggest thing that has happened to Sevens in the UK.

1. Samurai International – Predictable....possibly. These guys have had a serious off-season. Winners in Las Vegas, finalists in Hong Kong and Darwin and this past weekend opened their UK account with a semi-final berth at ULR Sevens – going down to an England development side. No one else has the ability to draw players in from around the world in the same way as Samurai do. By the time Rugby Rocks starts they are sure to have assembled a impressive VII, with one aim; to become the inaugural National Series Champions for 2010.

2. White Hart Marauders – With Samurai looking abroad for those ‘marquee’ players, the Surrey based Marauders boys are keen to develop some home grown talent with bags of potential. The Academy side were slick in winning the Sunshine Sevens a few weeks ago with a scratch side gallant finalists in Kinsale. Watch out for young guns Chris Rose and Jake Henry. Expect some Welsh World Cup winners and Islander flair to supplement these ‘freshmen’. Impressive 10-10 draw with Samurai at Bury at weekend.

3. The British Army - Their Sevens season is only 8 days old with the 15s team losing to the Navy for the first time in 9 years at Twickers. We could be looking at a bear with a very sore head. The Army is a side that will get to train together more than the rest of the teams and as can be seen at Newquay and Bath last season. When they get it right they are incredibly difficult to stop. Certainly in a with a shout for the series but this is only based on hearsay at present as we have not seen the red of the British Army take to the field yet this term.

4. Kooga Wailers - Very difficult to put the Wailers as higher then this at the moment as again we haven’t seen them turn out since Dubai back in December. With Scotland Sevens star Scott Riddel captaining the team though combined with the dangerous David Akinluyi, we can take it that they will be more than competitive. It will be interesting to see how they get on in Amsterdam in 13 days.

5. Raging Bull Ronin - It's a mess in the middle, whereas the top four perhaps are more predictable. Ronin have made some serious strides in the past two years and have already opened the season with a couple of good wins at tournaments in the North. I expect teams to be swapping places constantly over the next few weeks here in the middle of the pack, as I make up my mind on my final pre-season nine before RugbyRocks.

6. Olorun ID - Impressed me this weekend at Bury. The boys from the south west have been very quiet this off-season. They have not been on tour but from their showing at Bury, it looks like they have been quietly going about putting a squad of boys together that will be looking for success. Ball in hand they looked really dangerous but were taught a lesson by the older heads of Samurai in the quarters. They didn't take the chances on offer for the win and were made to pay by some super lines of running from Simon Hunt.

7. Apache - The lads from Oxfordshire have been busier than everyone else so far this season, popping up all over the country. It has meant trialing a number of players for the National Series and before Sunday I had them pencilled in at 5, but I was dissapointed with them in Bury. They lacked structure and at times direction. The players wearing the Apache shirt didn't put their hands up for National Series selection but I am sure over the next few weeks they will get some big names in and make an impact on June 12.

8. The Smurfs - Not sure if anything is happening on the other side of the River Severn. The Smurfs have taken an off-season vow of silence. I am going to be doing some serious digging over the next few weeks to let you guys know what sort of team these boys will be putting out and what chance they have to make an impact.

9. The Gilbert Pups - The new boys, with the Pups not having played much in the UK before. It is very difficult for me to put them any higher than 9th at this stage. I am told the addition of Gilbert is going to be bring in new players and they are making every attempt to become the 'world’s premier invitational 7s side'. The jury is out for me though but I will get my first taste of the 2010 Pups when I spot them in Amsterdam.

This list will be changing each week but in the meantime I expect and welcome your disagreements. That's the joy of my blog on UR7s.com; debating rugby sevens with the guys that know.

Its going to be a great season that I am certain of!

Till next time, keep it 7s.