As the senior national squad hunker down in the cold and wet in preparation for the RBS Six Nations under interim head coach Stuart Lancaster, England's Sevens stars depart today for sunnier climes in Wellington, New Zealand.
There they will compete alongside hosts and defending champions New Zealand and 14 other nations at the Westpac Stadium for the Hertz Sevens, round four of the HSBC Sevens World Series.
Three rounds have already been played so far this season on back-to-back weekends in November and December 2011, and Ben Ryan's side is currently four points off the lead with 47, behind Fiji and New Zealand (51) and South Africa (48).
"We certainly knew we'd started the season by the end of it," Ryan told Total Rugby. "A month away and one and a half times around the world, it was really tough. It was tough for everybody, but overall I'm delighted with where we are at the moment.
"The top teams have all had one trophy apiece really, with the exception of South Africa, and then we also have the emergence of France, which is brilliant."
France currently lie in fifth place in the race for the overall Series, which is light years ahead of where they have been for the past decade in Sevens. With nine contracted professionals, La France is now taking Sevens seriously and as a tier one union possesses the knowledge and expertise to make use of that full time status.
"It's just become more and more competitive," enthused Ryan. "All the teams are raising the bar every year, but this year I think it really will come down to the wire in London."
Wellington is a long way for the likes of England, France, Wales and Scotland to travel, but for the English at least New Zealand's capital has proved a happy hunting ground in recent times.
"Over the last four years for us in Wellington we've hit two finals and two semi finals, a very good record and turning things round from five years ago, when we'd still never won or really done anything there. It's important for us to continue that and go to Vegas (round five the next week) with a strong seeding."
2012 points to Sevens' Olympic debut
2012 is a massive year for sport, and a giant 12 months for London, England and all of Britain with the Olympic Games landing in the summer. For Ryan the hosting of a home Olympic Games is definitely also focusing minds on 2016, when Sevens will make its Olympic debut in Rio.
"All our planning goes towards those cycles and we're almost at the start now of a new Olympic cycle. Before you know it, this time next year we'll only have three years to go and maybe only 18 months before people are qualifying for the Games.
"It's incredible how quickly it comes around and we've warned plenty of people that it's 48 months away and you really have to make sure that your planning is spot on now, or you're going to get left behind that curve, and we're no different."
England are reputed to be one of the fastest of all the Sevens teams on the circuit and in the run-up to the fourth and fifth rounds of the Series they have been working with sprint specialist Faye Downey to hone that key strength even further.
"We've been lucky that we've had Faye help out, get the guys on the track and feeling faster, and we've seen some real improvements there.
"I think that collectively we are the quickest squad on the World Series and that's a strength that we want to get better at, not just decide that it's good enough and move onto something else.
"The boys enjoy it, it's one of our USPs, they feel fast and we're going onto probably the quickest track on the Series in Wellington, so hopefully you'll see some of that translated into the performances.
"At the moment we've got quality everywehere, with Mat Turner playing so well at scrum half, Dan Norton on the other side and Isoa Damu in the middle,.and we've got so many good young playmakers emerging as well that we really can threaten from anywhere.
"The forwards will win us the ball, but there are so many good teams around that it is highly competitive. We just want to make sure we can play to our potential and we think that's going to get us some silverware this season."
Sevens Uncovered: The flyer!
