“Hopefully this time around when things are right open the crowd does come out because it’s quite special when you see all that Fiji blue here in Hong Kong,” Gollings said.

“I’m sure they’ll creep out of the woodwork as we get closer to game time. November was a good taste for the players. We had quite a few new ones so they got to experience it, but now they’ll get to see it in full flow.

“We just lacked a bit of control at the end. And whenever you do that in sevens, it can be ruthless. It was a tough pill to swallow, but leaves more for this time.”

The HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series has been a mixed bag so far for the islanders. From playing their best free-flowing and physically imposing rugby in Hong Kong, they were dismal in Dubai before slowly but surely clawing their way back into form as the tournaments have rolled out across the globe.

Across the past two turnouts – in Los Angeles and then Vancouver – the Fijians looked for long stretches to be getting back to pretty much their best, led by the bullocking runs and quick hands of stand-outs Iowane Teba and Waisea Nacuqu.

But both times the Fijian charge was undone by the surprise packets of the Series so far – Argentina – in the LA Cup semi-finals and then the Vancouver Cup quarters.

So spare a thought for Gollings when the draw was made for Hong Kong and, indeed, there facing Fiji in Pool A were those pesky South Americans, with Canada rounding out the foursome for the early exchanges.

“Credit to Argentina,” Gollings said. “They keep holding their form and this season they’ve been riding high but for us in terms of the points table, in terms of games you want to play, it’s good for us to play them.

“You relish those chances to play those teams, and our pool is not an easy one with Samoa, Canada and Argentina. But it’s good for us as well. It’s a challenge we welcome.”

Fiji flew out on Saturday with so little fanfare that the local media almost missed the occasion and we can safely take that as part of Gollings’ plan to have his charges fully focused after some extra days to acclimatise and to once again take in the occasion.

“It’s been good,” Gollings said. “We’ve just focused on us. Training has been good. We visited the 10s on Wednesday and it has been fairly low key. We’re just focused on the end of the week.

“Hong Kong obviously holds a pretty special place in the hearts of Fijian players and the country. This is one they want to come and play for – and this one is going to be as big as they all are.”

On the line across this season also are the four automatic places for the Paris Olympics in 2024 and – with France sitting currently in third and having been granted automatic qualification as hosts – there are as many as nine nations still in with a chance of grabbing a spot.

With four tournaments left to play, we can expect a little extra spice this weekend, not that it doesn’t simply come with the territory when Fiji head out on the Hong Kong Stadium turf.

“It’s been incredibly tight,” Gollings said. “The minimum standard really ought to be hitting a semi-final in every tournament to make sure you secure yourself a place but it’s not been easy at all.

“There’s been a number of top sides, including ourselves, who havn’t made a quarter-final in one of the tournaments so that’s not usual. It’s going to go down to the wire all the way to the last tournament in London.”