It's been a while since the last post, but the Rugby Road Journal will be getting back up to speed over the course of the next few weeks as the Canadian National Team has landed in the host city for the 2006 World Championships. This time, the Worlds give the home advantage to the defending Paralympic Gold Medallists from New Zealand, with the Kiwis hosting the championships in Christchurch.

Worlds are only held every four years, which is offset with the Paralympic Games, thus giving the wheelchair rugby world an international peak-performance event every two years. This time, every team is better, and we'll have some bumpers with our names on them as the defending champs.

Seeding for this tournament is based on the international ranking that was in place 90 days before the Worlds, so even though the rankings were updated after our very successful Canada Cup, held near Vancouver, BC, the somewhat older ranking is being used, as has been known for some time, and listed in the rules & regulations of the sport.

Here's a look at the ranking at the tournament, with the latest (Aug-2006 ranking) listed alongside it:

1. New Zealand (2)
2. Canada (3)
3. Great Britain (5)
4. United States (1)
5. Germany (7)
6. Australia (4)
7. Sweden (6)
8. Japan (8)
9. Denmark (9)
10. Belgium (10)
11. Netherlands (12)
12. Switzerland (11)

We've got two pages full of info for you to digest for the Worlds, with the first page devoted to the schedule/results of the tournament, and the second one in grid form, which will show at a glance how the two pools are doing as each game gets reported in, either from the organizers or the Canadian delegation getting back to us with the latest info.

The icon in the upper right corner of the grid page is the new solid pewter pin that we had made for this year's world championships, which shows the ball of the game in an apple-like pose with a Canadian maple leaf and a New Zealand silver fern growing out from the ball. The central figure and the wording are all in relief from the background and are available in limited quanity from the CWSA office for $5 each. You can reserve some by contacting Don at dlane (@) cwsa.ca.

Team Canada has a new look, with some experienced players showcased alongside some newer names. Here's what our team looks like this time:

3.5 - Garett Hickling (Kelowna, BC)
3.0 - Ian Chan (Richmond, BC)
2.0 - Say Luangkhamdeng (Richmond, BC)
2.0 - Travis Murao (Vancouver, BC)
1.0 - Trevor Hirschfield (Parksville, BC)

... all from the BC Bandits, who won their 10th national title since 1993 in Halifax, NS this past May.

3.0 - Mike Whitehead (London, ON, but now living in Florida)
2.0 - David Willsie (London, ON)
2.0 - Martin Larocque (Embrun, ON)

... all from the Ontario Thunder, the top team in Ontario which has members from three of Ontario's clubs, the London Annihilators, the Ottawa Stingers, and the Toronto Barking Spiders.

3.0 - Fabien Lavoie (Québec, QC)
1.5 - Patrice Simard (Québec, QC)
0.5 - Daniel Paradis (Québec, QC)

... all members of the Québec Impact. The above three teams (BC Bandits, Ontario Thunder, and Quebec Impact) will all be representing the red & white at the North American Wheelchair Rugby Challenge in Orlando, Florida, this upcoming November at the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex.

0.5 - Jared Funk (Niverville, MB) is here from Team Manitoba, and

1.0 - Gordie Publicover (Halifax, NS) is our team alternate. Gordie plays for the Nova Scotia Spokebusters.

Coaching staff consists of Head Coach, Benoit Labrecque and Assistant Coach, Adam Frost, who the last time he was at Worlds was as a team member in our gold medal winning team in Gothenburg in 2002. Marco Dispaltro, who will also be contributing some content to the Rugby Road Journal this time, is our Team Manager & High Performance Coordinator. CWSA Executive/Technical Director Cathy Cadieux is our Team Leader. A full list of our staff is listed on the results/schedule page.

In preparation for the Worlds, the team has had a number of training camps, both in St-Jérôme, QC and at Humber College (the site of the 1995 World Championships, now with a results web page that I created from a number of sources in Canada and the USA) in Toronto.

I think that's enough for a first post... Catch you later!