Canada’s men can still qualify for the Games, though they face a nervy last-chance tournament in June against Samoa, Russia, Spain and Ireland for the privilege, with a shootout against the improving Pacific Islanders most likely.

Still, a good showing in Vancouver at the BC Place Stadium – where the Fifa Women’s World Cup final was played last year – could kick-start their season. After four rounds, before Las Vegas, they were 12th. It would also help shirt sales and rugby’s popularity in a country that promotes ice hockey and lacrosse as its respective winter and summer national sports.

According to Cooper, more than 20 per cent of ticket sales for Vancouver have come from outside British Columbia. Pleasingly, “there have been buyers in every province across Canada, more than 2,000 from the USA and 700 more from 12 other countries around the world,” he says.

So the stage is set for the men’s side, captained by John Moonlight, to star. “We have to fill a stadium – which we have done – and sell merchandise. To have a commercially successful tournament the consumer needs to believe in the product on the field,” Cooper says.

“The quickest way to do that is to have a jersey they have an affinity with to root for. Rugby Canada has worked its tail off over the last couple of decades to put a product on the field that is highly competitive. That’s a beautiful thing about sevens rugby: any time Canada step on the pitch they have a chance to win – and the consumers believe that.”

Moonlight undoubtedly believes, as his motto “Adversity causes some men to break and others to break records” surely testifies. Last year he was named Rugby Canada's male sevens player of the year for the third time.

The 28-year-old from Ontario – who has won 23 caps in the back row for the full national team and started three games in last autumn’s Rugby World Cup – has been a mainstay of the sevens side and has featured in in close to 100 games since making his debut in 2008.

Moonlight led his country to its best finish yet in the Sevens Series in 2013-14, when the team finished joint sixth, a year after helping secure their core status.

His experience on the circuit has been vital for Cooper and the organisers, and his recommendations will ensure they hit the right note in Vancouver. He and his team-mates must do their bit at BC Place Stadium now.

Moonlight says: “The problem with rugby in Canada is not a lot of people know about it [because] they have not seen any games. When they have watched a match they are instantly grabbed by it.

“The tournament in Vancouver is a great opportunity to showcase ourselves and help spread rugby, and sevens, across Canada. That it will be a record-breaking attendance shows that the sport is saleable here.”

Moonlight believes that the centralisation of Rugby Canada’s programme, which began in 2012, has helped matters, and most importantly allows young talent, from the age of 14, to be nurtured and guided in the correct way, in terms of nutrition and training. “We are on the verge of breaking through, and if you look at our stats even in this Sevens Series we are right up there,” he says.

Seeking out talent at a younger age will help the future of rugby in Canada. “Access to the sport has improved significantly since I started out,” Moonlight says.

“Most of us in the Canada sevens squad didn’t start until we were in late high school, having played other sports on the way through. Rugby just wasn’t a dominant sport for any of us and in some cases didn’t take off until university. It is crazy how much it has developed; now we have minis programmes which encourage kids aged four to play, and that’s brilliant.”