In the final games for the two Canadian teams today, the Nordiques easily defeated the #11 seeded Lakeshore Foundation team by a score of 31-18. The Ice continued their domination over the German National Team by a score of 43-32. In other games held today, #4 ranked team in the world Belgium beat the Denver Harlequins 31-24, and the Australian Development team got past the US Development team by a 2-point margin, 36-34.

The Ice played a very good game against the Germans, and set the tone early, taking the lead and never letting up. The Germans came out strong as well, but got overwhelmed by the zamboni power of the Ice. Hey, you have to get a few hockey analogies in. After all, we're Canadian, eh?

In what was a real crowd pleaser, Saskatoon's Mike Bacon caught the 'Hail Mary' catch of the century, catching a rainbow pass while going at full speed with four seconds left to score the final point for the Nordiques in their game against the Foundation. Everybody is playing really well, and the coaching staff is quite pleased with the players.

The results of today's pool games sets the top-2 teams in each pool into new high-performance pools, while the team placing 3rd in each pool is relegated to a group of teams who will play for 9th place. This lower-tier group now consists of Germany, USA Development, Lakeshore Foundation, and the Denver Harlequins. All of these teams were seeded from 9-12, and so far at this tournament, the higher seeded team has won every game.

Those teams still in the running for 1st place were placed into two new pools:

GROUP 1
1st A – Lakeshore Demolition
1st C – APVA Phoenix Heat
2nd B – Texas Stampede
2nd D – Canada Ice

GROUP 2
1st B – Canada Nordiques
1st D – Great Britain
2nd A – Belgium
2nd C – Australia Development

Canada has two concurrent games starting at 9:00am, with the Nordiques taking on the Belgians, and the Ice up against the hottest team in the USA, the Phoenix Heat.

Other Canadian games are scheduled for:

12:00 Canada Ice vs. Lakeshore Demolition
13:30 Canada Nordiques vs. Australia Development
15:00 Canada Ice vs. Texas Stampede
16:30 Canada Nordiques vs. Great Britain

To get up to the minute game results, check out the USQRA results page.

~That is all~    

As it turns out, the score in the earlier Canada Ice game was a five point margin of victory for the Brits.

The Nordiques - Texas Stampede game just wrapped up with another big hitting win for Les Nordiques. The 'Diques even went with a 7.5 lineup for a while during the game, which they won by a comfortable margin of 38-26. Hopefully the other team has a good welder on speed dial. In the game next door, the favoured Brits beat the #9 seeded Germans 34-29.

The next set of can-con games happen concurrently at 3pm local time, and will feature Marco Dispaltro coaching the Nordiques, while Benoit Labrecque stands behind the bench for the Ice. The games that are on right now should be exciting to watch, as the hungry Belgians want to test their mettle against the #1 ranked club team in the States. The other game features the hot Phoenix Heat against the US Development Team.

I'll have another wrap up later today, although tomorrow won't be as regular with the updates, as I am hosting an outdoor charity tournament for our local food bank. Canadians just love the Ice. :-) In the meantime, check out the continually updated Demolition Derby results page on the USQRA web site. Nice work John!

~That is all~    

The seedings have held thus far, with the tournament favorite Lakeshore Demolition beating the Denver Harlequins 41-25, while the champion team from last week's Coloplast International, the APVA Phoenix Heat downed the Australia Development Team by a 5-point margin, 32-27. Australia had 5 on the floor in that one, with The Kid leading the charge for Phoenix.

The first game for the red and white members of Canada Ice was GB, who had their top offensive player, 3.5 Jon Lilley, sit on the bench until the third quarter. Although the Ice flirted with the lead at times throughout the game, GB came out on top by a four point margin, winning the game 34-30 (although it could have been a 5-point margin according to the stats on the USQRA Results page).

Meanwhile, the #6 ranked Texas Stampede beat up the #11 seeded team from the Lakeshore Foundation, almost doubling them. The Nordiques will play Texas next at noon, while the Ice meet Germany at 3:00. Since GB is expected to beat Germany at their 12:00pm game, the Ice game will be intense, and hard fought by both sides, as the loser of that game will be relegated to the pool of teams that will eventually play off for 9th place. Whichever team wins that game still has a chance at the Demolition Derby title. The Ice beat the Germans by a 10-point spread in their last game last Sunday in Tampa at the Coloplast International.

The games that are currently underway see #1 Lakeshore Demolition vs. #12 Denver Harlequins in one court, while #2 Phoenix Heat meets the #7 ranked Aussies.

The team has now settled in to their next city on their US tour, despite a few delayed flights for a few of the team members, courtesy of Air Canada. They've traveled slightly over 600 miles from Tampa, Florida to the southern city of Birmingham, Alabama, where they will soon compete in the Demolition Derby.

Actually, speaking of the Demolition Derby... this is really the last tournament where the Lakeshore Demolition lost twice at a single tournament, having lost to our own Nordiques last year as well as the Australians. On a good note for the Demolition though, they placed 2nd last year, with the 'Diques placing 3rd behind Lakeshore and the Aussies. If you are looking for the results from last year's Derby, or wanted to read a few stories from those two international competitions last year you need look no further than the Rugby Road Journal.

This year, the teams that have entered to the 2003 Demolition Derby look fairly similar to those our guys encountered in Tampa last weekend, with the exception of the Denver Harlequins filling in for the Tampa Generals, and the "At Large" team swapped for a Lakeshore Foundation team, which is to be anchored by US National Team member Sam Gloor (2.0). It's worthy to note that the Harlequins and their huge roster will be beefed up with two Kiwi national team players who played on the "At Large" team last week.

Prior to their impressive 5th place finish at the Coloplast International, the seedings were made for the Derby, and the Ice became the #8 seed. Our Nordiques retained their #2 seed. The 'Diques will have the Texas Stampede and the Lakeshore Foundation in their pool, while the Ice will meet Great Britain and Germany. The Brits feature their big, fast 3.5 player Jon Lilley from the East Midlands Marauders, while the top-offensive German player was the leading scorer at the 2000 Paralympics.

   

The results of the Coloplast International have now been posted on the USQRA web site.

Well, well, well.... looks like Lakeshore has now lost twice at this tournament... as the Nordiques won the bronze medal game by a one-point margin. I can't think of a tournament where that has happened in a very long time. Kudos to the 'Diques and the coaching team!

In speaking with a number of people who were at the tournament, the level of play of all the top teams has increased, and the margin of error on the court often became the margin of victory for the winning team.

The Ice went through some growing pains with the losses yesterday, but was able to regroup in a team meeting this morning and worked some things out as a solid unit. Teamwork and communication was the key to their victories over the two European national teams that they faced today, including a comfortable 10-goal margin of victory over the Germans. The Ice, led by Mike "Shake 'n Quake" Whitehead, feels good about their chances at the second tournament of their US tour, which comes up next weekend in Birmingham, Alabama.

In the tournament championship game, the Phoenix Heat, led by the ever-quick Kid, beat Great Britain in overtime by a single goal.

Congratulations to Phoenix on a well-played tournament!

Canada places 3rd and 5th out of the 12-team international tournament, which is an especially good result for our split teams.

All-Tournament Team:

0.5 - Koen Delen (Belgium)
1.0 - Scott Hogsett (Phoenix Heat )
1.5 - Patrice Simard (Canada Ice)
2.0 - Bryan Kirkland (Lakeshore Demolition)
2.5 - Troye Collins (Great Britain)
3.0 - George Hucks (Australia Development)
3.5 - Garett Hickling (Canada Nordiques)
MVP - Brad Dubberley (Phoenix Heat)
Sportsmanship - Dave Jenkins (Hoveround Lightning)

Final Results:

1 - PHOENIX HEAT (3)
2 - GREAT BRITAIN (4)
3 - CANADA NORDIQUES (2)
4 - LAKESHORE DEMOLITION (1)
5 - CANADA ICE (10)
6 - BELGIUM (5)
7 - GERMANY (8)
8 - TEXAS STAMPEDE (6)
9 - Hoveround Lightning (9)
10 - Australia "Development" (7)
11 - At Large (12)
12 - Tampa Generals (11)

~That is all~ Go watch the Super Bowl!

Today's games saw crossover matches between top and bottom ranked teams in the Group 1 and Group 2 pools as illustrated on the tournament schedule. For Canadian teams, this meant the Ice met up with Germany, while the Nordiques played against the Phoenix Heat.

I don't have any breakdown on how the games went, but I do know that Phoenix beat the Nordiques by 2 or 3 points, while the Brits beat Lakeshore by a similar margin in a game which meant that both the #1 and #2 seeded teams were knocked out of the gold medal game. Both games were apparently spectacular for the fans in attendance. Great Britain will now meet Phoenix in the final, while the Nordiques and Lakeshore battle for 3rd place.

The 10th seeded Canada Ice overcame their seeding once again to defeat Germany. Meanwhile, in the same pool as the Ice, Belgium beat the Texas Stampede, which meant that the Ice would meet the 4th ranked team in the world in a game that would decide 5th place at the Coloplast International.

In another great effort for the Ice, they eventually came out on top of the Belgians by a single goal, securing 5th place at the tournament and a great achievement, considering their seeding.

In other games, the Hoveround Lightning, which often features our own David Willsie at other tournaments, won their final two games to secure 9th place at the tournament. They beat Australia by 4 goals to secure their final seed. The At Large Team beat the hometown Tampa Generals for 11th place.

From what I've heard so far, here are the final results of the tournament, with the seeds in parentheses.

1 - Great Britain / Phoenix Heat
2 - Great Britain / Phoenix Heat
3 - Lakeshore Demolition / Nordiques
4 - Lakeshore Demolition / Nordiques
5 - CANADA ICE (10)
6 - BELGIUM (5)
7 - Germany / Texas Stampede
8 - Germany / Texas Stampede
9 - Hoveround Lightning (9)
10 - Australia "Development" (7)
11 - At Large (12)
12 - Tampa Generals (11)

In the final game of the day for each of the Canadian teams, we had one win and one loss. The Ice lost to Belgium, the Cinderella team at the World Championships seven months ago. The Belgians, who were seeded 10th at Worlds, ended up 4th, defeating some impressive teams along the way. The margin of victory for the Belgians over the Ice was 7 or 8 goals.

In a closely fought defensive battle between the British National Team and Les Nordiques, the ‘Diques ended up on top by a single point, winning 18-17.

In tomorrow’s matches, I believe that Canada Ice will be up against the #3 team from the Group 1 Pool in a game that starts at 09:00. In the next time slot, at 10:30, the Nordiques will be up against the #2 team from the Group 1 Pool (Phoenix Heat???). The Ice can place 5th if they win both of the games that they are to play tomorrow, while the Nordiques are still in the running for the tournament title.

There is a Banquet being held this evening, after which I suspect I’ll hear from some members of the team. If they call, I’ll post another report.

Here is a quick update on the scores from today.

The Ice lost to Great Britain by about 7 goals, while the Nordiques beat Belgium by 6. The next game had the two Canadian squads up against each other, with the 'Diques coming up with another win. The third game of the day started at 4:30, and is not over yet. The Nordiques are playing Great Britain, while the Ice meet up with Belgium.

In other games today, in what is effectively the consolation pool, the unheralded "At Large" team, made up of players picked up from across the United States, along with a few Kiwi pickups, came within a goal of beating Australia, losing only in overtime.

More news later tonight!

Aussies upset by Ice in Tampa

Well, it is unseasonably cold down there... about 6º C (3º C with the wind chill factor) according to the site linked to your left... but that wasn't the point of the header. The 10th seeded Ice have beaten the 7th seeded Australians by 7, winning by a score of 43 - 36. All members of the Australian team were on their 2002 World Championships team. The Ice were seeded 10th going in to the tournament, despite having beaten the Germans last year at the World Rugby Challenge and the Suncoast (now Hoveround) Lightning and the California Quake at the Demolition Derby. I suspect they will be seeded higher next year.

Mike Whitehead (3.0) played sensationally for the Ice, and along with Jared Funk (0.5) and Patrice Simard (1.5) played the entire game. 3.0 classified players Fabien Lavoie and Steven Dunn subbed in and out for each other throughout the game. At one point, The Ice held a 13-point lead, and delegated the Australians to the pool of teams who will seek 9th place over the course of the next two days. All teams who place either 1st or 2nd in their pool today still have a shot at winning the tournament.

In other pool games today, GB beat the Germans by 7, and the last time I heard, GB was up by 7 over the Hoveround Lightning, who are from Sarasota, Florida. The Texas Stampede (without Zupan or Updegrove) beat the Tampa Generals by 3.

It's a balmy -31º C (-24º F) with the wind chill factor here in sunny Ottawa while I write this note about how our athletes are faring in the somewhat warmer Tampa sunshine.

The first results are in from the Coloplast International, where Canada has two teams in action – The Nordiques, our higher ranked team, and Canada Ice, our team of developing players. The 'Diques ran into the Tampa Generals, while their teammates from the Ice met the #2 ranked team in the USQRA, the Phoenix Heat. The Nordiques beat Tampa by an 11-point margin, by a score of about 34-23. It's worthy to note that Tampa used all four of their timeouts in the first quarter of the game. Meanwhile, in a nearby gym, the Ice were melted by the Heat by a score of 25-32. Guess that means that if they were to play here, in the 2nd coldest capital in the world, the Ice would freeze the Heat. Go figure. ;-)

On a negative note, players noted that several of their cars had been broken into. More word on this later, but at least one member of the National Team has lost a considerable amount of personal clothing and his airline ticket for the next tournament.

2003 COLOPLAST INTERNATIONAL

Pool "A"
Lakeshore Demolition (#1 in USQRA)
Belgium (#4 in the world)
At Large (a composite team)

Pool "B"
Les Nordiques du Canada (#2 seeded team in the tournament)
Texas Stampede (#4 ranked team in the USQRA)
Tampa Generals (#7 ranked team in the USQRA)

Pool "C"
Phoenix Heat (#2 ranked team in the USQRA, featuring "The Kid")
Australian Development (pretty much their world championship team less "The Kid")
Canada Ice (#10 seeded team in the tournament)

Pool "D"
Great Britain (#5 ranked team in the world)
Germany (#9 ranked team in the world)
Hoveround Lightning (#5 ranked team in the USQRA, less David Willsie, who is playing for Les Nordiques)

The next game for one of the Canadian teams is at noon, when the Ice meets Australia. The Nordiques will play Texas at 3:00pm. Tomorrow’s matchups are contingent on the outcomes of today’s results. Check the USQRA Scoreboard for more information on the day-by-day results for all teams, and to see who is on the lineup for each team, check out our roster page. New pools will be formed, grouping the top 8 teams into two balanced pools, while the bottom team from each of the first four pools will meet each other and play for 9th.

As requested, please find some directional maps to the hotels and venues where we will be during our upcoming US Tour:

2003 Coloplast International

VENUE MAP – Fort Homer Hesterly Armory, 504 N. Howard Avenue, Tampa, FL, 33606, USA

HOTEL MAP – AmeriSuites Tampa Airport Westshore

HOTEL WEB SITE

HOTEL ADDRESS: 4811 W. Main Street, Tampa, FL, 33607-4501, USA
TEL: 1.813.282.1037
FAX: 1.813.282.1148

---

2003 Demolition Derby

VENUE MAP – Lakeshore Foundation, 4000 Ridgeway Drive, Birmingham, AL, 35209, USA

HOTEL MAP – Holiday Inn Oxmoor

HOTEL WEB SITE

HOTEL ADDRESS: Holiday Inn Oxmoor, 260 Oxmoor Road, Birmingham, Alabama, 35209, USA
TEL: 1.205.942.2041
FAX: 1.205.290.9309

Members of the Canadian National Team Program were busy this past weekend, with athletes participating in tournaments in Charlotte, North Carolina and Portland, Oregon.

At the first tournament, the South Florida Rattlers, coached by our own Marco Dispaltro, and featuring a high amount of Can-Con, placed 2nd at the Carolina Classic, with Steven Dunn earning best in class honours as a 3.5. His roomie, Fabien Lavoie, earned his first ever MVP award, playing with the Magee Rolling Rebels, who are based in Philadelphia. Stevie said that he had never seen Fabb play better rugby, and in his game against the Crash, he was just unstoppable. Marco concurred, saying that Fabien played "out of his mind" and that he was getting stronger with every tournament under his belt. As MVP of the tournament, Fabien won a very nice set of Quickie heat treated wheels.

Other Canadians on the South Florida team included 1.5 Patrice Simard and 2.5 Allan Chartrand, from Edmonton. The host team from Charlotte, the CIR Carolina Crash won, with South Florida and Philadelphia rounding out the top three.

The Rattlers beat the Carolina Crash on the first day of the tournament, prior to the arrival of Australian Patrick Ryan (2.5), but the full Carolina roster played against Fabien's Magee Rolling Rebels, where the Crash squeaked out a one point victory. Two other teams, including the Tentucky TNT, were supposed to be there, but ran into some bad snow conditions.

Meanwhile, on the left coast, the BC Bandits were in action, missing Winks 'n the Warrior. The Great Northwest Invitational was held in Portland, Oregon, and saw the Bandits by led the 2.5 duo of player/coach Adam Frost and Say Luangkhamdeng. The Bandits improved their ranking to finish 4th at the tournament, losing to the Denver Harlequins in the bronze medal game by a 6 goal margin. The Harlequins are currently ranked 12th in the USQRA.

The BC Bandits earned victories over the University of Arizona Wildchairs and Northridge Knights to place 2nd in their pool. They lost to the evenutal winners, the Portland Pounders, by an 8 point margin. The Pounders are the #11 ranked team in the USQRA.

To summarize, the final ranking of the teams at the Portland tournament (with their USQRA ranking in parentheses) was :


#1 - Portland Pounders (#11)
#2 - Sharp Edge (#9)
#3 - Denver Harlequins (#13)
#4 - British Columbia Bandits
#5 - University of Arizona Wildchairs (#20)
#6 - Northridge Knights
#7 - Seattle AllNight
#8 - Reno Bighorns

At the Charlotte tournament, the results were:


#1 - Carolina Crash (#10)
#2 - South Florida Rattlers (#16)
#3 - Philadelphia (Magee Rolling Rebels) (#17)
#4 - Augusta Riverhawks

Well, it has been quite a while since I've last posted something new to this Rugby Road Journal, and as the team is about to embark once again on a series of back-to-back international tournaments in the States, I thought it best to get the Journal rolling once again.


Here is a team photo taken by yours truly, at the National Team Training Camp, which was held last December at Confederation High School in Ottawa. Back Row: Stéphan Charbonneau (Equipment Manager), Jennifer Cadieux (Medical), Cathy Cadieux (Team Leader), and Benoit Labrecque (Assistant Coach); Middle Row: Joe Soares (Head Coach), Mike Bacon (1.0), Garett Hickling (Co-Captain, 3.5), Ian Crowe (2.0), Mike Whitehead (3.0), Steven Dunn (3.0), Ian Chan (3.0), Fabien Lavoie (3.0), Trevor Robinson (2.0); Front Row: Martin Mainguy (0.5), Daniel Paradis (0.5), Patrice Simard (1.5), Daryl Stubel (2.0, with the IWRF World Championships Trophy), Dave Gagné (1.5), Jared Funk (0.5), Say Luangkhamdeng (2.5), and David Willsie (Co-Captain, 2.0); Missing: Marco Dispaltro (Manager), Allan Semeniuk (2.0) and Adam Frost (2.5).

We will once again be forming two distinct teams for these tournaments. The higher-seeded team will be Les Nordiques du Canada, while our development team will be the members of Canada Ice. Rosters for all teams at the Coloplast International and the Demolition Derby are just a click away, while tournament information and schedules are available through the links in the margin of this page.

During pool play, the Nordiques, who are seeded 2nd at both tournaments, will meet the #4 and #7 ranked teams in the USQRA (Texas Stampede and the Tampa Generals) at the Coloplast International, while they meet Texas again at the Demolition Derby as well as the Lakeshore Foundation team. The Ice, who are ranked 10th at the Tampa tournament, will meet the Australian "Development" Team and the #2 ranked team in the USQRA, the Phoenix Heat. At the next tournament, where they are seeded 8th, the Ice will meet Great Britain and Germany.