Meanwhile, somewhere a bit warmer...

The Dubai Sevens have begun with the historic first IRB sanctioned women's sevens (World Cup excepted) (see earlier post for details). All seems to be going as expected so far, Spain ran Australia close but - it seems - lost out to dodgy refereeing decisions (according to the Canadians who were watching!), and Canada thumped Brazil. England have also won their opening game against China 26-15, and USA beat South Africa 22-10 - again as expected.

The opening two rounds of Pool A games are on the main pitch, so plenty of information on them - but England's pool is hidden away on Pitch 2 so the information coming out of there is a bit slow (like an hour behind!) - though we hear that apparently Michaela Staniford scored a hat-trick in the opening game.

Also on the back pitches Netherlands, France and Kenya are playing in another tournament. In fact there are five women's sevens tournaments going on, including what is in effect an Arabian Gulf "championship", and an U18 tournament for local girls.