While I listen to a few of the new CDs I picked up at a concert last night by The Waifs, who are the Aussie's best export since «The Kid», I thought I'd check out the stats from the European Championships, which are running concurrently to our own international tourney just outside Vancouver.

The Waifs, an indy band from Australia, are currently on a North American tour, with stops at a number of rugby cities, including Ottawa, ON (Zaphod Beeblebrox), Winnipeg, MB (Winnipeg Folk Festival), Birmingham, AL (City Stages), and Tampa, FL (Cuban Club).  They will be touring with Bob Dylan, doing over a dozen shows together.  Their enthusiasm is infectious, and their music becomes almost immediately familiar, which is all too rare.  They are highly recommended, and I'm exceedingly hard to please, so that's saying something.

The European Zone, which has the greatest number of active rugby playing countries within it's borders, has almost wrapped up their championship, and The Danes are looking like the story of the tournament.

So far, they beat the Swedes, one of the traditional powers in European wheelchair rugby, in a protested game 27-26, and scored victories over Switzerland, Finland, and Norway, and came within 3 points of top-seeded Belgium, who finished 4th at the 2002 World Championships.  Those wins were enough to place them 2nd in their pool and setup a crossover match against the powerful Brits, who spanked them back to reality by an overwhelming score.

The other pool had no major upsets to the seeds, so this is what it looks like for Sunday's final games:

11th: Ireland vs. The Norwegians
9th: Poland vs. The Finns
7th: Austria vs. The Swiss
5th: Sweden vs. The Netherlands
3rd: Germany vs. The Danes
1st: Belgium vs. The Brits