Glasgow, as exclusively revealed by Herald Sport, is to be named as the host venue for next season's penultimate leg of the HSBC World Sevens Series at an IRB press conference in Hong Kong a week tomorrow.
The Scotland leg of the series has always been the final tournament and it has always been staged at Murrayfield, despite a strong lobby to opt for the birthplace of sevens rugby, the Greenyards in Melrose.
The Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens, however, have never attracted the large crowds that such an event both warrants and requires, and compares unfavourably with the record numbers coming through the Twickenham turnstiles.
The venue for the Glasgow tournament is expected to be at Scotstoun, soon to be the new home of Glasgow Warriors. Holding a tournament in Glasgow, one year ahead of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth games, in which rugby sevens will be one of the high- profile sports, does, of course, make a huge amount of sense.
There are concerns, however, about the suitability of Scotstoun for spectators. Sevens thrives in stadiums where the players and crowd are in close proximity, but Scotstoun is primarily an athletics stadium housing an eight-lane track which means spectators are some distance from the pitch.
It is not just venues that are changing next season. Speaking at the launch of the Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens yesterday, the IRB tournament manager, Beth Coalter, announced that next season would feature the first women's world series.
Coalter also confirmed that the world series will be extended to 10 tournaments, played as five pairs of two, starting in October on Australia's Gold Coast and finishing in May at Twickenham. The current season, in which Japan has been added, has begun with a triple weekend schedule but one which is not being repeated.
"This is the only year in which we will have three tournaments – Gold Coast, Dubai and South Africa – on successive weekends" said Coalter.
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