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.