However, looking at the team sheets submitted to the organisers, it looks to me that the Premiership clubs especially are not really treating this competition as something worthy of too much attention, so it let me to ask the question in the title of this article.

In the good old days, there was a time when the Middlesex Sevens was a purely invitational tournament, which meant not much more than a fun day out for whoever chose to show up on the day, with the added spice for the players involved on playing a game – albeit a shortened form which shouldn't be confused with proper rugby (although one worries that the IOC might be thinking this week that Sevens is the way of the future) – on the hallowed turf of the home of English rugby. In those days, Twickenham matches were restricted to full England internationals and cup finals. The chances of any one individual player appearing for their club or country on that basis was so amazingly low, that the Sevens could have been seen as a way of being able to tell your grandchildren “I played there once you know!”.

In the sense of the meaningfulness of the tournament, not much has changed. Its a bit of a runabout on the day, but in these times of robust dietary programmes and rigid training regimes, playing a sevens tournanment a couple of weeks before the main start of the season offers nothing but negatives to a team in the Premiership. Nothing can be learned from performances or playing patterns in the games on the day (it's Sevens, remember!), and one runs the risk of taking a hit that gets you injured before the season starts. No wonder very few GP teams have named obvious first-team contenders in their line-ups for the weekend.

For the supporters too, the trip to Twickers has palled as an event in recent years. London-based rugby fans (and go on, admit it, the majority of the Middlesex Sevens tickets will be sold to stockbroker-belt attendees) are now used to the regular double-header at the start of the season, and with the onset of the playoffs as a concept for deciding the Premiership champions, another Twickenham date awaits. The pilgrimage to TW19 has transposed itself from the Middlesex Sevens to the double-header as the herald of the season's start, leaving the charity event lacking in a certain charisma.

The tykesrugby.co.uk website is so bristling with enthusiasm about the event that I don't remember reading a single post about the topic.

To my mind, the announcement of the inclusion of sevens into the Olympic programme of 2016 will engender a bit of interest in the sport this weekend – something obviously serendipitous that the organisers will be hugely foolish to miss out on the connection. But if they want Middlesex to be considered a top tournament for sevens, it's time it was revamped.

The club sides are not interested, and the fans are in danger of becoming equally blasé about the tournament, so I believe it is a good time to turn the Middlesex Sevens into a quasi-international affair, and perhaps link it in some way into the IRB international sevens series. There is already the “London Sevens” in that series, so it obviously couldn't really become a round in its own right, but perhaps it could become something of a “World Sevens Championship” for under-20 players for example.

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