A – Australia. Hosts of the sixth Commonwealth Games to feature rugby sevens and the first to have a women’s event

B – Jess Breach. The England winger scored six tries on her test debut in 15s and then nine at the HSBC Sydney Sevens in January so will be one to watch on the Gold Coast

C – Captains. The gold medal winning captains are Eric Rush (1998 and 2002), Tafai Ioasa (2006), Tim Mikkelson (2010) and Kyle Brown (2014)

D – Defending champions. South Africa arrive on the Gold Coast as defending champions after beating New Zealand in the 2014 final at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow

E – Eight. The number of team that will take part in the inaugural Commonwealth Games women’s sevens competition in hosts Australia, Canada, England, Fiji, Kenya, New Zealand, South Africa and Wales

F – Fiji. The Pacific Islanders were convincing 54-7 winners over Wales in the first-ever Commonwealth Games rugby sevens match in 1998

G – Gold. Who will claim one of these distinctive gold medals on 15 April? 

H – Home disadvantage? No host country has ever medalled in rugby sevens in Commonwealth Games history

I – Incredible interest. Rugby sevens tickets have been in hot demand and were sold out long ago

J – James Rodwell. A stalwart of the England team who is appearing in his third Commonwealth Games, having played the most consecutive tournaments (68) on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series

K – Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysian capital which hosted the first Commonwealth Games to feature rugby sevens back in 1998

L – Ghislaine Landry. The Canada captain is the leading point scorer of all-time on the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series with 906

M – Medallists. The 15 previous rugby sevens medals in Commonwealth Games history have been won by only five nations: New Zealand (5), South Africa (3), Australia (3), Fiji (3) and England (1)

N – New Zealand. The All Blacks Sevens won 30 matches in a row, winning Commonwealth Games gold four times from 1998-2010, before tasting defeat for the first time in the 2014 final against South Africa

O – Olympians. There are 80 veterans of Rio 2016 in the Gold Coast 2018 squads, including 45 medallists. There are more female Olympians than male with 45 to 35.

P – Points. A total of 9,706 points have been scored in 223 matches across the five previous men’s tournaments

Q – Queensland. The state hosting the Games and home to eight of the Australian women’s sevens team, including Emilee Cherry, Charlotte Caslick and Dom du Toit.

R – Robina Stadium. The 27,500 capacity venue for three days of action-packed sevens from 13-15 April

S – Waisale Serevi. The sevens maestro and World Rugby Hall of Fame inductee played in three Commonwealth Games with Fiji and medalled each time, but none were of the golden variety

T – Sir Gordon Tietjens. The legendary coach and World Rugby Hall of Fame inductee guided New Zealand to four Commonwealth Games gold medals and a silver but in 2018 will be targeting a first medal for new charges Samoa

U – Unique treble? Australia won the first women’s RWC Sevens title and first Olympic sevens gold … will they add the first Commonwealth Games gold to that run of firsts?

V – Victoria Grant. The Women's Rugby World Cup winner is rugby's representative in the Women’s Internship Coach Programme, a ground-breaking initiative of mentoring, learning and on-the-ground training with the Black Ferns Sevens to help her development as a coach

W – Portia Woodman. The New Zealand speedster is the top try scorer on the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series 2018 with 22 tries in two rounds.

X – X-factor. With names like Dan Norton, Charlotte Caslick, Portia Woodman (main picture) and Rosko Specman, rugby sevens can certainly never be described as predictable!

Y – Youth Olympic Games. Three players won medals at Nanjing 2014 when rugby sevens made its Olympic debut. Australia’s Dom du Toit (pictured right) scored a hat-trick in the gold medal match against a Canadian side featuring Charity Williams and Hannah Darling

Z – Zambia. The African nation and Jamaica will make their Commonwealth Games debuts in the men’s competition