The competition will take place at 27,400-capacity Skilled Park in the Gold Coast, the venue that will host the 2018 Commonwealth Games rugby sevens competition, while the Series has taken on extra prominence since the sport of rugby sevens was voted onto the Olympic programme for Rio 2016 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) back in 2009.

The draw for round one of the Series has seen hosts Australia pitted against defending Gold Coast Sevens champions Fiji in Pool B in a group that also features Scotland and Tonga.

Defending HSBC Sevens World Series champions New Zealand line up in Pool A alongside South Africa, the United States and Canada, while England head Pool C in a group that also features Samoa, Spain and Kenya.

The draw was completed with Pool D, which consists of Argentina, Wales, France and Portugal, and Gosper believes the tournament marks an important step towards the Rio 2016 Olympics.

"This is a hugely exciting time for me to have joined the IRB and I am delighted to have been involved in making the draw for the Gold Coast Sevens, our first major rugby sevens event in the new Olympic cycle," said Gosper (pictured top, right).

"The HSBC Sevens World Series has grown into a global brand attracting hundreds of thousands through the turnstiles and millions more on television around the world.

"We are looking forward to another hugely successful Series, starting on the Gold Coast."

Australia captain Ed Jenkins said his side was looking forward to arriving on the Gold Coast where the hosts will be looking to win their first Sevens title on home soil since 2002.

Lindsay Crook of Australia runs with the ball during the third place playoff match between Australia and South Africa on day two of the Gold Coast Sevens World Series last year

"Last year the crowd and the support was good, hopefully this year there'll be more people there enjoying some fantastic games," said Jenkins.

"The draw has certainly thrown up some exciting match-ups and some great challenges.

"All of the games on day one could go either way and when they're done the finals on day two will be even tougher."

The Gold Coast is the first of nine rounds of the 2012/2013 HSBC Sevens World Series.

Following Australia, the Series will head to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) before travelling to South Africa, New Zealand, the USA, Hong Kong, Japan, Scotland and finally England next May.

In addition to the Gold Coast Sevens draw, the IRB has also announced a change to the pool draw allocation process for each of the nine rounds.

From the start of the new season, the winner of the third/fourth bronze medal match at each round of the Series will be placed top of Pool C for the subsequent round.

Previously, the only teams to gain automatic placing into pools for the next event were the Cup winners and runners-up who went top of Pool A and Pool B, respectively.

The changes also see the teams placed fourth to eighth drawn into band two in the subsequent round with the teams placed ninth to 12th drawn into band three and the teams placed 13th, 14th and 15th drawn into band four together with the one invitational team.

For the Gold Coast Sevens, teams were placed and banded based on the final standings of the 2011/2012 Series.

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