England will bid to banish their Six Nations blues by completing an unprecedented rugby double at the World Cup Sevens this weekend.
England, also gunning for their fourth successive victory in Hong Kong, will become the first country to hold world titles at both codes if they lift the Melrose Cup on Sunday.
Victory would be a shot in the arm for English rugby, whose flagging fortunes since winning the 2003 World Cup have extended into the current Six Nations campaign where they have lost three out of four.
But to reprise their 1993 World Cup win England will have to beat top seeds New Zealand, the current title-holders who lead the current IRB Sevens series by 20 points.
Veteran Kiwi coach Gordon Tietjens said he was itching to repeat his 2001 triumph but warned that a number of teams could take the honors.
"We'd never won a World Cup before [in 2001] so that was very special to us. To win it again is the key for us, not so much to defend it as to win it back," he said.
"Sevens is very competitive, any one of six or seven teams could win a tournament and that's how we treat it," he said.
Super 12 stars Josh Blackie and Rudi Wulf have been drafted in but New Zealand will be without flying All Blacks winger Joe Rokokoko, who opted out.
Fiji, the 1997 champions, have been boosted by the return of legendary playmaker Waisale Serevi, who played at all three previous World Cups but missed the last two IRB Sevens tournaments here.
However, Fiji coach Wayne Pivac was appointed just three weeks ago and has expressed concerns that his hastily assembled squad are short of playing-time together.
"This is the best side available. But my biggest worry is that a lot of these guys have not played sevens for quite a while and not played together as a unit. This is the biggest hurdle facing us," Pivac said.
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