Six Pacific Island rugby teams will be in action when the Sevens World Cup kicks off in San Francisco today.
Sevens World Cups Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Fiji are among the leading contenders in the men's draw while the Papua New Guinea men and women are making their tournament debut.
A straight knockout format for this year's event means any slip-up will end a nation's World Cup dream.
Despite coming up short in the World Series, Fiji coach Gareth Baber insisted his team was not feeling any added pressure to bring home the silverware.
"There's always pressure on the players," he said.
"Even if they're playing a pick-up game...to playing on the international sevens scene these players are always put under pressure. There's a huge expectation back in Fiji which we all recognise.
"You can bet they will never take a backwards step," Baber said.
"They don't always get it right - they're human beings, as we all are, but they're always trying to put themselves and to put Fiji at the top of the map and that's what they will continue to do certainly this weekend."
Racing 92 star Leone Nakarawa has been included in Fiji's extended Rugby World Cup Sevens squad. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Six Olympic gold medallists have been selected in the Fiji squad, while the European-based quartet of Josua Tuisova, Leone Nakarawa, Semi Kunatani and Semi Radradra all made the final cut.
The 2005 World Cup winners will play Uruguay or Japan first up and Gareth Baber said he wants the team to play with pace, continuity and aggression.
"There's always key areas like restart, there will be areas like defence of set-piece.
"Now I know that when we get into unstructured rugby and general play that we are where we need to be but we need to create pressure in the game to enable us to be in those situations."
Papua New Guinea are competing at their first Sevens World Cup in San Francisco.
Both the men and women's teams featured on the World Series this year while the Pukpuks also took part in the Commonwealth Games.
Coach Dougie Guise said they face a tough ask against Canada first up if they're to progress into the main draw.
"We're going to take each game at a time but we've played Canada in the last couple of series and we've been very competitive against them," Guise said.
"We've led them a couple of times during matches so we know they're very beatable but we haven't had much big tournaments compared to them."
Samoa face Uganda in the Championship Cup Qualifying Round, with the winning team advancing to play England.
Meanwhile Tonga will be playing their first major tournament of the season.
Jack Ram (pictured at the 2012 Wellington Sevens) will captain Tonga at the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The island kingdom qualified for the World Cup after winning the bronze medal at last year's Pacific Mini Games but did not feature on the World Series or at the Commonwealth Games.
Former Blues flanker Jack Ram, who now plies his trade in England, is captaining his country and admited it's been a tough build-up.
"We've sort of sunk downhill a bit because of the way sevens is looked after back at home," he said.
"We don't really have much to supply our sevens with in terms of tournaments and how the Tongan Rugby (Union) look after the sevens (programme) but we're trying to improve with what we've got, in terms of getting into some tournaments so that we can get back to where we were a couple of years ago."
Fetu'u Vainikolo scores a try during the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Fetu'u Vainikolo and Daniel Kilioni are also former 'Ikale Tahi internationals although the bulk of the team is locally based.
Ram, who missed the 2013 Sevens World Cup through injury, said they will give it their all against Kenya this afternoon.
"I just told the boys we've got nothing to lose - just go out there and enjoy your rugby.
"For us it's more representing our country but for them trying to get opportunities - you never know teams might be watching you and then our local boys get picked up for clubs overseas and stuff like that. (I told them to) enjoy the moment, it's a big occasion and, you never know, you might not make it to the next World Cup."
The Women's World Cup also gets underway today with the Fijiana up against Spain while Papua New Guinea face a daunting Round of 16 match-up against World Series and Olympic champions Australia.
