This weekend the sixth round of the HSBC Sevens World Series takes place in Adelaide, Australia, one of only two countries to have twice won the Rugby World Cup, and yet the majority of the locals will know nothing about the sport being played at the Adelaide Oval.

Far away from Australia's rugby heartlands, the International Rugby Sevens brings the game to South Australia, where cricket and Australian Rules Football reign supreme.

"It's great for Australia to have an event here and staging it in Adelaide is a good chance to try and grow rugby in an AFL (Australian Rules Football) stronghold," said George Gregan, world rugby's leading all time internationalist who played Sevens at the start of his own career.

"The Adelaide Oval is a great venue. It may not be as big an arena as Hong Kong or Wellington, but it's everything that's great about rugby - it's a perfect showcase for a lot of fun, mateship and festivity and great competition for the players.

"I played Sevens at the beginning of my career and I went to Hong Kong in 1994 and 1995, which was just a great experience as a young international to have that intense an experience over a short period of time."

Gregan was in Hong Kong at the weekend playing Rugby 10s for the Asian Barbarians alongside former test nemisis Justin Marshall. Another former Wallaby in attendance, and looking forward to the Adelaide showpiece, was Glen Ella.

"I'm trying to get down to Adelaide, I've been down a few times, it's in a foreign area for rugby where there's a lot of AFL but the people of Adelaide have really embraced it and they get good crowds there," said Ella, who was coaching the Lloyd McDermott Foundation team in Hong Kong alongside brother Gary.

"The Sevens event is good exposure for Rugby in Australia. We needed one of the Series tournaments and it's exciting."

Robbie Deans certainly agrees. Before he started as Wallaby coach, and certainly ever since, the country's Sevens programme has proved a fertile ground for breeding test caps.

Of the current Wallaby back division, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Drew Mitchell, Lachie Turner, James O'Connor, Luke Burgess, Luke Morahan, Nick Phipps and Richard Kingi all established themselves on the Sevens World Series.

"It's a great springboard for a lot of young players and the Australian Rugby Union are now starting to use it to pick the guys with the talent," added Gary Ella.

"It's a little bit like the one day cricket side where Australia started picking young guys to expose them to a high intensity and I think it's certainly paying dividends for the Rugby national side but there's also a lot of fresh talent this year in the Sevens again."

In Adelaide the hosts line up in Pool C and face three tough matches against Fiji, Tonga and USA.

Tickets still available

Tickets for the International Rugby Sevens in Adelaide are still on sale through Ticketek and a two-day pass starts from just $55.

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