Sevens is, I believe, on the cusp of something spectacular.

We have a very exciting new season ahead of us and everything is getting very serious now, serious in a nice way. We have added tournaments, there are nine to come, starting at the end of this month in Australia, on the Gold Coast for the very first time.

We have another new venue to follow in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, after all those lovely years in George, and an exciting stadium - the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium - which will be a terrific venue for years to come.

That will be the third of three in a row at the beginning of the season. It is going to be a pretty tough three weeks with Dubai in the middle of the Gold Coast and Port Elizabeth, but it adds something extra special before Christmas.

Beyond that there is plenty to look forward to as well. There is going to be a first venue of the recent years in Tokyo, where the U20s was played a couple of years ago, and in the new year we also go to Wellington, Las Vegas, Hong Kong and end up with Scotland and England as the final tournament.

There have also been some very significant changes. Keith Lawrence has retired but in his place comes Steve Lander as the new IRB Sevens Referee Manager, and a first referee coach will be alongside him in Scott Young, and that is another big step.

Giant steps

Let’s not forget the women too, who are going to be an equal part when we come to the Olympics in Rio in 2016. In Dubai, the first week of December, there will be a first official IRB Women’s tournament, so this is goingto be a development of great significance.

It will be followed by a full itinerary next year, and in addition they will also remain a part of the Rugby World Cup Sevens which takes place in Russia in 2013.

So there remains a lot of excitement for not only this season but the future of Sevens, and that is aided by the fact that it is not having a quiet off-season anymore.

We now have the Euro Sevens, for the first time we had the Pan American Games last month, as well as the Africa and Asia tournaments, the Commonwealth Games, and it has all become so big.

I know we have had a great Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, but in terms of involvement and ability to play at the highest level, Sevens for me is the future. Even Jacques Rogge, the Presidentof the IOC, said it will be the big names and the big games when we come to 2016 in Rio and Sevens makes its debut.

Olympic pathway

So it is a very exciting season. Five years off and we are building towards an Olympic championship for the very first time and the prospect for players to become Olympians. Particularly for those in USA, Canada, China and Russia, this is the big target for so many players.

There is a World Cup for men and women in Moscow in 2013 and within two seasons we will be looking ahead to qualifying tournaments for the Olympic Games which themselves will be dramatic.

There will only be 12 teams in that tournament so there will be an exciting and tense qualification process around the world. The players can already see the pathway to being an Olympian and it is all now getting very tense, serious and exciting.

It is the reason why we are seeing fully contracted players. These players are Sevens players, not fifteens players, they are full time and this is the way it is moving across the world.

We are on the cusp now of what is going to be a major major attraction to those, not just in the stadium, but as a spectacle for those watching around the globe, as well as for the players who can earn a good living as Sevens players.

For now, I can't wait to see how not only this season, but the next few years evolve, beginning on the GoldCoast at the end of the month.

See you at the Sevens!