The 2015-16 HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series gets underway in just over 24 hours and signals the start of a historic season for the sport of rugby sevens. 

All roads lead to the Olympic Games in Rio next August and the series promises to be the biggest and best to date. Dubai marks the first round and following the opening two days, the 12 sides will head to Sao Paulo, Atlanta and Langford, Canada in April 2016, with more annoucements expected. 

New Zealand will be looking to achieve a record breaking fourth consecutive HSBC World Rugby Women's Sevens Series title and in Dubai they start their defence alongside France, Russia and Brazil in Pool A. They welcome some new faces to the fold this year, including Niall Williams, the sister of All Black Sonny Bill, and their captain Sarah Goss is excited for what lies ahead.

"We've had a long pre-season window, we've been training hard and we're just keen to get into it this season. 

"Our team is pretty young this weekend, we have some injuries but they're coming back strong so we just want to show the world what we've been doing over the last few months," said Goss.

Pool B hosts the 2014-15 series runners up Canada and they will be competing against the USA, Fiji and new core team Ireland. 

The final group, Pool C, houses the two sides that finished in third and fourth last year, Australia and England, who are matched against Spain and Japan. 

Australia captain Sharni Williams is happy with their pre-season and is looking forward to getting back into series action on Thursday in Dubai. 

"With the Olympics, the standard has really picked up. With (Rio) being so close now, the standard is going to get even higher. Our skill levels are up there, the passing has improved, and i'm looking to see some really good games this weekend."

Last year's series saw some outstanding individual and team performances. New Zealand's Portia Woodman was the series’ top try scorer with 52 and amassed 260 points in total. As part of a Canadian side that pushed New Zealand all the way, Ghislaine Landry accumulated 301 points and 39 tries and for Russia, Nadezda Kudinova was instrumental in assisting her side to their first ever Cup final in Langford, Canada last April.

Kudinova says Russia will focus on the series, but also have to work on Olympic qualification through the global repechage next year.. 

"We obviously want to train harder and get to the Olympic games as we haven't qualified yet. I think our team is very unpredictable and we're always capable of surprises especially in the series."

In the heat of the Dubai sunshine the 2015-16 HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series opener promises to be a scintillating affair with every side looking to get the largest year in the history of the sport off to the best possible start.