Crazy time is fast approaching the windy capital this weekend and even the New Zealand sevens team has caught a case of the crazies.
There were a couple of skirmishes in the supposedly friendly (but no doubt competitive) training game between Canada and New Zealand, and quietly spoken Junior Tomasi Cama let fly with a fist or two, just to let the Canadians know whose turf they were on.
If he was in the crowd during the Wellington sevens, he'd be thrown out without hesitation, according to the latest warnings from the police and tournament organisers.
They are warning party-goers and rugby-followers that they'll be clamping down on alcohol smugglers, ticket scalpers, late-night exiters and OTT trouble-makers. Only empty water bottles are to be brought in to the venue, and don't be surprised if parts of your costume are checked for contraband.
As a bit of a token gesture, there will be eight water boys walking around offering thirsty spectators some waiora. Someone may have to offer them a drink - if they manage to get around the Cake Tin in one piece.
There are three kinds of people that make it to the Wellington sevens. -
• Those who go for the party atmosphere and spend months on end planning their outfits and chants for the two-day festival.
• Those who insist they go mainly for the rugby, who sit in the quiet seats up the top but end up joining in with the singing and dancing by the end of the day (and dare I say, they may forget about the rugby?).
• And those who are disorganised and manage to beg or steal tickets at the last minute, whip up a costume in half an hour, and head to the ground like a kid who found the golden ticket to Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory.
I fall in to the last category, and once again I find myself wistfully looking at the photos from last year, laughing at the cheerleader squad finalists for all the teams online, and wondering if anyone can be roped in at the last minute to babysit if, by chance, I did manage to get my hands on a ticket.
Who wouldn't want to go if they could? There are characters off and on the field.
The new caps for the New Zealand team - Rory Grice, Shane Christie and David Raikuna - have a chance to show their home crowd what they are made of. With cool names that roll off the tongue such as Bryce Heem, Jackson Ormond, Scott Curry, Frank Halai, Declan O'Donnell and Buxton Popoali'i, the newer players are surely going to be just as cool on the field.
To add a bit of balance to the team, there are still six old heads on the field such as the likeable and apparently sexy (according to India's media) DJ Forbes.
Off the field, we are comforted by seeing Gordon Tietjens at the helm once again. With his management crew around him he'll know how to keep the players focused in an atmosphere that must be hard for any athlete to ignore.
Tietjens, with a demeanour that belies his hard-nosed approach to physical conditioning and nutrition, deserved to be named coach of the year at the recent rugby awards.
He continues to bring out the best in players many 15-a-side coaches have claimed are lazy or uncoachable. He has guided the team to four consecutive Commonwealth Games gold medals, and he manages to keep his entourage competitive in the IRB sevens series year in and year out.
The role of coach doesn't usually come with job security or longevity, but Tietjens has ignored that trend.
If New Zealand plays well this weekend, he might be in that role for a few more years yet. And if he can get his team to focus and perform in the middle of all the festivities, he truly is a legend.
