Currently, after the December rounds in Dubai and Cape Town, New Zealand sits well back on the series depth chart in seventh spot, as Fiji, South Africa and interestingly enough the United States being the frontrunners.
The rise of the Yanks is an interesting prospect if you follow your sporting history - it was the iconic moment of Brandi Chastain ripping off her top (calm down, she still had a large sports bra) after the winning penalty kick in the 1999 Women's Football World Cup in front of 90,000 screaming compatriots which put soccer on the map in that gridiron-mad nation.
Imagine what a strong world cup campaign leading to an upset gold medal could do for American rugby? Mr Williams may find yet another lucrative frontier opening up for his management team to mull over.
Yet currently, as New Zealand sits well back on the ladder, it's fair to suggest the remaining tournaments from Sydney to Vancouver, and Singapore to London would be better served preparing, honing and shaping the 12 guys to deliver the end game - the one tournament that matters in South America.
Like Australia winning the Rugby Championship in world cup years, the sevens world series will not be remembered in the mainstream sporting consciousness, outside of die-hard union statisticians.
Rio is what will be remembered, and if shaping a gameplan for that time means a couple of trips down into bowl and plate grades during the world series, then so be it.
Case in point, shouldn't it be harder to win in Wellington when you include a guy who has had only 10 days to familiarise himself with the cross field sweeps, and 0-100km acceleration tactics of sevens, as Tietjens has done with SBW?
"We had a game on Saturday against the Wellington provincial side and he played his first official game of sevens and certainly excelled," Sir Gordon said this week. "He's still got a lot to learn but we felt it was the right time to introduce him."
The other big name is of course Ardie Savea, and the question is can he control the short, sharp breakdown area in games which only have three forwards?
Hey, I'm just glad after years of constantly having to unearth and foster new talent from the nursery, after being scorned and ripped off by unsympathetic Super Rugby franchises, that Tietjens can finally have his "A" teams again, with SBW's ironclad contract actually insisting on it.
I remember working in the Rugby News offices in 2009 when my editor called up his mate "Titch" to get his thoughts on the fact a player he had been told was injured had recovered enough to sit on the bench for the Chiefs in the big game that weekend. His furious "what!" at the revelation could be heard from the headpiece and through the glass windows into the next office.
Under the NZRFU rules, each Super Rugby franchise was supposed to release one player for NZ sevens duties, yet it was amazing how many guys went from dead keen to suddenly, after a talk with their franchise coaches, having slight knee niggles and calf strains.
With the inaugural Rio gold at stake, I dare say a few boys will be walking medical miracles in 2016.
