While Waisale Serevi and his Fijian team were busy stealing the headlines with their superb performance in winning the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2005 in Hong Kong last week, Asian rugby was showing, both on and off the field, that it could play a huge role in the future development of the game.

For years, the tournament to come to has been the Hong Kong Sevens. And this year's event certainly lived up to its reputation.

But for true followers of the game, events that occurred away from Hong Kong Stadium, were just as important as what went on in the main event.

If ever the International Olympic Committee needed proof that sevens should be included in the Olympics, then all they need do is look at a highlights package from the tournament.

The two semifinals and final, alone, were the type of stuff that had TV audiences on the edge of their seats.

The old master Serevi beating England in sudden-death extra time; Australia producing a great fightback to almost knock over its arch-rival New Zealand; and a final that will no doubt be replayed for years to come, such was the level of rugby.

Add in Tunisia shocking South Africa, Chinese Taipei upsetting Italy, Japan beating both Canada and Portugal and South Korea defeating Tonga, and you have a package that would be watched all over the world.

And judging by comments made by two IOC representatives in Hong Kong, who were there to write an official report as to seven's suitability to be included from the 2012 Olympics onward that is exactly what will happen.

Shunichiro Okano, Japan's representative on the IOC, and Ron Froehlich, president of the International World Games Association were both full of praise for the support at an "Asian Day" gathering on the first day of the Sevens.

Okano said that he hoped Asian rugby would have a role to play, both in the rugby world and the Olympic movement, while Froehlich said that, "we will do whatever we can to make rugby an Olympic sport."

The Asian unions, in particular, are hoping rugby will be readmitted to the Olympic movement as soon as possible.

With over 500,000 players, and the biannual Asian Championship being the second oldest regional tournament behind the Six Nations, the hope of the Asian Rugby Football Union is to increase the number of unions to 35 (from 24) by 2010.

The government funding that will come as the result of rugby being given Olympic status will help greatly in setting up clubs in areas of huge potential, and will, according to Mohan Balasuriya, president of the Asian Rugby Football Union, help with the ARFU's goal of "development through tournaments."

Proof of the potential on offer, came earlier in the week at the Hong Kong Tens and Kowloon Rugby Fest (two tournaments that have sprung up in the wake of the success of the Sevens).

Among the touring teams (both amateur and professional) from the U.K., New Zealand, Australia and Japan were players from the Philippines, Singapore and Guam, and their opponents included, among others, the Hong Kong Developmental squad, China Agricultural University, Chubb PLA (People's Liberation Army) and the Kublai Khan Mongolia Nomads.

The latter were playing in only their second tournament -- their first had been a week before in Manila -- and among their ranks was a prop named Gunna.

It was no surprise that at 130 kg, Gunna's first sport was wrestling. But it was a shock to find out that he is, according to one of his teammates, only one of four "elephants" (the Mongolian equivalent of yokozuna) in the last 50 years and was a mate of one Asashoryu.

Just what he and the Nomads' teenage winger (who could run 100 meters in 11 seconds) could do given some proper training and a regular fixture list is beyond the imagination, and highlights the vast in-roads that could be made if the proper funding and exposure was given to the sport.

With that in mind, Balasuriya told the assembled guests, which included a high-ranking delegation from the Japan Rugby Football Union headed by former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, that the ARFU "gave its total support to Japan's bid to host the 2011 Rugby World Cup."

That view was backed up by John Molloy, chairman of the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union, who said that the ARFU was one of the fastest growing unions in the world, and that the success of the Hong Kong Sevens had helped greatly "in bringing world class rugby to Asia."

Molloy, who later in the week said that the HKRFU were totally behind Japan's bid, believed that if Japan were to win the right to host the 2011 RWC, it would "only help further develop the game in the region."

With Guam taking on India on June 18, in a World Cup qualifying game, and Gunna and his mates looking at playing in even more tournaments, there is no shortage of players and talent in Asia.

Giving them the opportunity of playing in the Olympics and exposing them to rugby at the highest level in the form of a World Cup held on their doorsteps will go a long way toward nurturing that untapped talent.

The IOC will decide in Singapore in July as to whether rugby will be readmitted into the Games, while the IRB will make the decision on who hosts the 2011 RWC in November.