For any of you who may have missed the gold medal final game from the 2006 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships, the good people at TV New Zealand have left it on their site, at least for now, for you to view at your leisure.

It can be accessed through the "Click here for Wheelchair Rugby LIVE" link on this page of their site.

Many thanks to TV New Zealand for making a first in the sport, and for keeping it posted on their site for all to view.

Here are some excerpts from the media releases that went out from the BCWSA:

Canada Wins Bronze at World Rugby Championships

September 16, 2006. New Zealand – Canada won the bronze medal with a 23-19 win over Great Britain at the 2006 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Great Britain got off to a quick start and was up 2-0 two minutes into the game.  And, just like in yesterday’s match against the USA, Great Britain called a chair check on Canadian team member Patrice Simard.  The chair was deemed legal and Great Britain was given a penalty.  Canada played a strong defensive game forcing their opponents to take three of their four time outs within the first four and a half minutes of the game.  At the end of the first quarter it was seven all.  In the last minute of both the first and second quarters, Great Britain had possession but Canada was able to shut them down, preventing any opportunities for them to score before the buzzer.

"The game plan was to control the ball and control the game and we executed the game plan perfectly," said Head Coach Benoit Labrecque.  “We came back from a bad loss against Great Britain (in the round robin); we now know what we need to do to win against them."

Throughout the game, Great Britain was forced to make mistakes and Canada capitalized on the turnovers and bad passes.  By the end of the half Canada was up 13-11.  Canada maintained the pressure ending the third quarter with a score of 21-18.  Going into the final eight minutes of the final quarter, Canada’s game plan was to shut down their opponents.  They were able to do this with Garett Hickling’s (Kelowna) line-up.  Hickling and Mike Whitehead did an amazing job controlling the play.  The line-up was able to kill six minutes and 15 seconds before Canada lost possession and a goal was scored by Great Britain.

"It was amazing to be able to come in and help the team out," said Trevor Hirschfield of Parksville who’s ambition is to make the team for the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.  "It was a lot of fun.  My job is to play ‘keep away’, tie up the big guys and not let them score.  I work with Daniel to set picks and hold them off."

Both Say Luangkhamdeng of Surrey and Richmond’s Travis Murao said it feels great to be bringing home the bronze.  Murao will play at the University of Arizona this coming season.

Ian Chan of Richmond said he was pleased with the team’s performance.  Overall in the tournament, he would love to have a couple of bad passes back but that’s sport.

---

USA takes out World Wheelchair Rugby gold medal

September 16, 2006. In defeating New Zealand 34-30, top seeds the United States won the World Wheelchair Rugby Championships in Christchurch today.

Ahead 9-8 at the end of the first quarter, the United States, withstood everything the New Zealanders could deliver then pounched in the final quarter as the Wheel Blacks risked all in an effort to break the US
stranglehold.

New Zealand coach Grant Sharman said that the Wheel Blacks did not quite have their "A Game" today and the United States played extremely well.

"On paper both sides are pretty even, but they just had the edge today.  While we are extremely disappointed at the result, having trained for this for two years, we have no excuses.  We were beaten by the better side on the day," he said.

At half-time there was still only one goal in it, 16-15, but the United States grabbed another turnover in the third to take a controlling 25-23 advantage into the final quarter.  Clawing these two goals back in the last eight minutes was a mountain too high for the Wheel Blacks.

New Zealand's silver medal equalled their performance at the 1988 world championships in Canada.  They finished third in 1995 and sixth in 2002.

Key New Zealand player Dan Buckingham said that the intial reaction after losing such a major match as this is one of emptiness.  "We have trained hard for this and had lots of good times on the way, but it is still pretty devastating.  In the end we'll get over the disappointment and look to our next campaign."

United States lynchpin Mark Zupan said that his particular side was the best he had been involved with and that as a squad they had been working towards this goal for four years.  "This is an amazing feeling.  To win a gold medal is what we all aim for," he said.

In the match for the bronze medal defending champions Canada beat great Britain 23-19 while Japan upset Australia 48-46 for fith placing.

Scorers: United States 34 (Mark Zupan 14, Andy Cohn 10, Bryan Kirkland 5, Seth McBride 3, Will Groulx 2), New Zealand 30 (Tim Johnson 13, Dan Buckingham 9, Gerry Tinker 8).

Today's results: Switzerland 36, Denmark 21 (11th + 12th); Sweden 36 v Netherlands 30 (9th + 10th); Germany 40 v Belgium 37 (7th + 8th); Japan 48 v Australia 46 (5th + 6th); Canada 23 v Great Britain 19 (3rd + 4th).  United
States 33 v New Zealand 30 (gold and silver medal).

Final placings: United States, New Zealand, Canada, Great Britain, Japan, Australia, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark.

---

Canada Will Play for Bronze at World Rugby Championships

New Zealand – Canada will play for Bronze against Great Britain at the 2006 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships following a semi-final 23-21 loss to the US.

Canada gained possession at the tip off but lost the ball quickly because they did not bounce or pass within 10 seconds.  The USA promptly scored and that became the story of the game as both teams began trading points and Canada continued to catch up. At the end of the first quarter, the US had a 7-6 lead.

"We shook off a few early cobwebs," said Assistant Coach Adam Frost of Vancouver, "but we were able to end the first quarter strongly."

At the start of the second quarter once again Canada gave away the ball and the USA went up by three points.  Canada quickly turned the momentum around forcing the USA to make a mistake and regained the point.

At 2:31 into the second quarter the USA called for a measurement on Canadian team member Patrice Simard’s chair.  The chair check was okay and the USA was called for a technical foul and received a penalty.  Garett Hickling (Kelowna) came on to play his role.  As a great ball handler, it is Hickling’s job to kill time.  He did a fantastic job killing the penalty, however the advantage slipped through Canada’s fingers when they failed to complete a pass with 30 seconds left on the clock, allowing the USA to take the lead at the half 12 – 10.

Canada drew within one point by the end of the third quarter but in the final quarter the team could not create the turnovers required to make up the deficit.

"We followed our game plan pretty well," added Frost.  "We wanted to control the game and slow the US down.  We wanted to keep the game close because we know in a close game the US has a tendency to make mistakes.  Unfortunately, for Canada we were the ones that made the mistakes that cost us the game.  We beat ourselves.  We did not get beaten by the US, we played a better game.  We made some errors and were not able to recover.

When asked how the team felt after the game Frost said "Of course they were down, they wanted to win but we tried to get them to focus on the positive and look towards tomorrow’s game.  One of the problems we heard after the 2000 Sydney Paralympics, when Canada lost the semi-finals, was that they were so bummed out they were not prepared for the bronze medal game.  So there is a real focus this time not to let that happen and be ready to go tomorrow."

In the other semi-final game today, New Zealand defeated Great Britain to advance to the Championship final.  Canada goes up against Great Britain in the bronze medal game, while the USA and New Zealand will play for gold.

Here is the latest available Sportcom release on our Bronze Medal victory in New Zealand:

Le Canada médaillé de bronze

Montréal, 16 septembre 2006 (Sportcom) – Le Canada a remporté, samedi, la médaille de bronze aux Championnats du monde de rugby en fauteuil roulant présentés à Christchurch, en Nouvelle-Zélande.  Formée, entre autres, des Québécois Fabien Lavoie, Daniel Paradis et Patrice Simard, l’équipe canadienne a remporté le match de la médaille de bronze contre la Grande-Bretagne par la marque de 23 à 19.

« Notre plan était de contrôler le jeu ainsi que le ballon.  C’est ce que nous avons fait tout le long du match.  Nous avons imposé notre jeu et c’est ce qui nous a permis de sortir vainqueurs », a expliqué le joueur à la défensive, Daniel Paradis.

La nervosité s’est fait ressentir lors des premières minutes de la partie les opposant aux Britanniques ce qui a occasionné quelques erreurs du côté canadien.  En revanche, le Canada est parvenu à prendre le contrôle du ballon et à conserver l’avantage dans le match en mettant la pression sur l’adversaire jusqu'à la dernière minute.

« Nous avons énormément ralenti le jeu pendant le dernier quart pour limiter les erreurs et conserver l’avantage.  Nous voulions nous assurer de la victoire », a ajouté le joueur originaire de Sainte-Foy.

Les Américains ont été couronnés d’or alors qu’ils ont défait, en finale, l’équipe hôte par la marque de 34-30.

Après leur victoire, l’entraîneur de l’équipe canadienne, Benoît Labrecque, était très fier de ses protégés.  « Ils ont connu un excellent tournoi.  Si ce n’était de la défaite crève-cœur contre la Grande-Bretagne en première ronde et les erreurs effectuées contre les Américains, nous nous serions retrouvés en finale », a-t-il tenu à expliquer.

Il reste que les Canadiens ont pu avoir leur revanche sur les Britanniques en ronde finale.  « Depuis les jeux paralympiques d’Athènes, la Grande-Bretagne était l’une de nos bêtes noires.  Cela faisait longtemps que nous les avions battus sur le terrain.  Nous sommes donc bien fiers d’avoir remporté la médaille de bronze vis-à-vis de cette équipe. »

Une victoire contre la Grande-Bretagne a également une autre saveur pour l’entraîneur de Québec qui est à ses premiers pas à titre d’entraîneur-chef de l’équipe canadienne.  Il était auparavant l’entraîneur adjoint de Joe Soares qui a délaissé le Canada pour diriger l’équipe britannique.  « Ça fait un petit velours de remporter ce petit duel d’entraîneur », a conclu Labrecque.

L’équipe canadienne sera de retour au pays lundi.  Les joueurs bénéficieront d’un mois de congé avant d’amorcer la prochaine saison qui débutera en novembre prochain.

The tournament All-Stars have been announced at the official athletes banquet!  There was an all-star chosen for each of the seven classes in the sport, but unlike all three previous World Championships, no MVP (Most Valuable Player) was selected.

2006 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships Tournament All-Star Team

Class / Name / Country
0.5   Jonathan COGGAN   GBR   Great Britain
1.0   Roger SUTER   SWI   Switzerland
1.5   Patrice SIMARD   CAN   Canada
2.0   Bryan KIRKLAND   USA   United States
2.5   Troye COLLINS   GBR   Great Britain
3.0   Shinichi SHIMAKAWA   JAP   Japan
3.5   Brad DUBBERLEY   AUS   Australia

There is a re-cap of today's gold medal game on the Lakeshore site.

Happy reading, and good night from Ottawa... until about 05:00 EST when the All-Star team selections are due to come in.

~Don~

The tournament all-stars from the 2006 World Championships were voted on by the coaching staff from every team.  Teams are not allowed to nominate anyone from their own team, so at most, any single player can have at most 11 votes in his favour.

Only five people are remaining on national teams who won these prestigious awards last time around in 2002, including American players Norm Lyduch (1.0), Bryan Kirkland (2.0), and Steve Pate (3.5).  From the Belgian national team, their key 1.5 player, Ronny Verhaegen, is still on the team, and from Team Canada, our 3-time World Championships MVP, Garett Hickling, is still an integral member of our team.

The latest word is that the All-Star selections will not be announced until later on this evening in New Zealand, in about 4-5 hours time.  They will be announced during the banquet, and shortly thereafter, will be posted to the Rugby Road Journal.

The streaming video had very few interuptions, and had excellent commentary by Peter Martin and the colour commmentator.  It's been very much appreciated by our fans in Canada, and others across the world.  Well done TVNZ!!!

As Mark Zupan mentioned in the post-game interview, "It's been a loooooong time since the US has had a taste of gold..." at the world or Paralympic level, but their victory today was well deserved.

What remains to be seen is the World Championship allstar team selections, but I don't believe we'll see that on the video feed, as it cut off shortly after the Zupan interview.

I'll try to get a hold of the Canadian team, and will post the results of those awards both on the results page, and here in the Rugby Road Journal.

Thanks for reading along. I've had a good time bringing the news to you.

All the best,

Don Lane

Secretary,
IWRF Americas Zone

A 10-seconds no dribble call is made on the Kiwis, giving the ball back to the US, and Kirkland takes the ball down, and passes over to Zupan for an easy goal.

It's effectively over with the amount of time left, and the goal spread.... just 7 seconds left in this, the final game of the 2006 World Championships.

In the final seconds, both teams know who the winner is... and it's over... the Americans have returned to the top of the world's depth chart.

USA 34 - NZL 30

Congratulations to the United States for a well played game. They hardly had any mistakes throughout the game, and deserved the victory.

Johnson scores for the Kiwis, countered by a goal from Zupan.

We're down to the final minute...

The time is ticking away, with the Americans up by three.

Sholto Taylor goes over forward, and gets righted by his team staff.

1:25 left in the game... and the Kiwis get Tim Johnson back from the sin bin and we're back to 4-on-4 rugby.

The US keep the ball in the front court, and the Kiwis, getting a bit desperate now with the clock running down, get called for a reach, and lose a player to the sin bin.

Taylor is now in for Tinker, and Palmer is in for Buckingham.

The Kiwis want to isolate the American 3.0, Mark Zupan, who plays for the Texas Stampede in the regular season in the USQRA, the largest wheelchair rugby league on the planet.

The mistakes are piling up for the Kiwis, who have a small bench... so Curtis Palmer may soon be brought in to spare some of the tiring New Zealand players.

The Americans are still up by two... and are keying it up, content to hold on to their margin... which could very well end up being the margin of victory unless the Kiwis make some spectacular turnovers.

I haven't seen a couple of the Kiwis yet, namely Curtis Palmer and Dave Klinkhamer, while some American players, including their big 3.5 Steve Pate, and 2.5 Justin Patterson from the California Quake, who played with the Quebec Impact at our 2006 Nationals, have yet to see any court time.

The key minutes are with the key lineups from both teams.

NZL inbounds the ball to Geremy Tinker and scores!

#4 Sholto Taylor is still in the bin... because he came in when he should not have late in the 3rd quarter. Things look good for the Americans, who quickly score through their big 2.0 from Lakeshore.

Zupan now calls for an equipment timeout and has one of his wheels changed.

To get a closer look at who is on the court, all the player's numbers are listed on these pages for the two teams: NEW ZEALAND and THE UNITED STATES.

The quarter ends up with Sholto in the box, and the Americans leading 25 - 23.

Time out white... for the USA... as Kirkland saves the day and recovers what could have been a key turnover.

Coach Gumbie for the US updates his players on their roles, and then both teams are back on the court... with the Americans intent on shutting down Sholto Taylor, who was formerly a 2.5 player, but was classed down to a 2.0 within the past 18 months or so.

Thanks for the comments... comments are always appreciated... and our Canadian players really love the feedback and support.

Isn't watching this game awesome? It's like we are there!

Buckingham gets a quick goal which is counterbalance by a goal by Seth McBride, as the Americans are still running with the four deuces.

Gerry Tinker positions himself well in front of Will Groulx... and gets the goal, which is quickly countered by another goal for McBride.

The teams then trade one for one in a lot of open court rugby.

The Americans get the arrow AND the ball, and circle the key until an opening is found by #10 Will Groulx from the Portland Pounders.

A time out is called... I believe by the Kiwis... who get some instruction, and spray themselves down and then get back out on the court.

NZL's Tinker gets called for a reach and heads off to the sin bin. The Americans are taking it easy, and eventually go for an easy goal in the powerplay situation.

Tim Johnson makes a bit of a long pass, but Buckingham was able to catch up to it.

Buckingham passes it over to Johnson, and another call was made... a jump ball for Zupan.

Turnovers: 1 for NZL, 0 for the USA, which has made the difference thus far in the game.

Bill Oughton, at 44 years of age, is now in the game. Bill is also the NZWR president, and a frequent tournament director. He is a 1.0 player on the Kiwi National Team.

Buckingham and Zupan have a big collision, with no obvious winner... consider that hit a "tie".

Zupan circles around the key and eventually scores. Tinker gets one back on a pass to reply with a goal for the homebase Kiwis. A nice sized crowd is in the Westpac Centre, and they're making a good amount of noise in support of the New Zealand team.

Is anyone doing the YMCA dance at home? ;)

Buckingham is definitely having an impact on this game, and with those dreads, you can always see him, regardless of the camera angle, which varies from closeups to full court views.

The Americans are now up by two goals, but the Kiwis have the ball, working on their final goal of the quarter.  The Americans are well back in the zone.... Johnson gets through to effectively close out the quarter, and close the gap to a single goal.

USA 16 - NZL 15. It's still anyone's game.

Nick Springer is now substituted in to the game.  Some Canadians might have seen him at our 2006 Nationals in Halifax, Nova Scotia, playing as an import for the Alberta Ruffnecks, the provincial team from the wild rose province.

Springer played on Alberta lineups which often included one of his fellow "deuces" (National Squad member Allan Chartrand or Ken Hicks from Edmonton), and 1.0 Dale Campbell, with National Squad member 3.0 Dale Nording rounding out their main line.

Buckingham gets a jump ball on the US team... which changes the possession arrow back to the US team...

Kirkland powers through for a goal to bring the US back in to the lead, 13-12... there's a lot of muscle in that 110kg frame of his.

The ball is in-bounded now by the Kiwis, with Andy Cohn in the "sin bin." They play keep away and finally score...

The lineups right now are:

NZL: 3.0 Buckingham - 2.0 Tinker - 2.0 Johnson - 1.0 Waite
USA: 2.0 - Kirkland - 2.0 Cohn - 2.0 Groulx - 2.0 - McBride

The score is now 12-12, and we're in an equipment time out for the Kiwis

2.5 Peter Martin is one of the television commentators... he was a national team member who competed for the Kiwis as recently as at the 2002 World Championships and at the 2003 World Wheelchair Games. These days he is an Athletics athlete, recently competing in field events such as the javelin.

The first quarter ends with a score of 9-8 for the Americans, as Bryan Kirkland was able to control the ball and score with only two seconds left on the clock.

The score, as most of you are now able to see, is tied at 7 in the first quarter...

If you haven't found it yet, the link to the LIVE world championships gold medal game between New Zealand and the United States is on the upper left side of this page.

In the first quarter of our Bronze Medal game, GB's Ross Morrison stripped the ball from our 1.5, but we were able to balance the situation when Morrison threw a long bomb which was intercepted by Mike Whitehead.

The score by Quarter was:

Q1   7 - 7
Q2   6 - 4
Q3   8 - 7
Q4   2 - 1

During our 6-minute shutdown of the GB offence in the final quarter, our "Court General," Garett Hickling, who overcame a lot of adversity to be back in game shape after major spinal cord surgery this season, played the entire six minutes of that key defensive effort. & Typically at these Worlds, we were using "G" only in specific game situations, but he played considerably longer in the final game to help us secure the bronze medal.

We created seven turnovers and gave up five balls throughout the course of the game, and the coaching staff and the players are happy with their bronze medal.

"One of the strengths of the Canadian team at these worlds was our ability to finish strong," said Canadian Assistant Coach Adam Frost. He commented further to note that "...our athletes superior conditioning gave us the ability to play our game and control the ball throughout the entire game... and put us in a position to finish strong." He thanked the support team that we brought with us, which helped out immeasurably in the team's success, commenting particularly on our new system of athlete cooling, which we have been working on with staff from the Pacific Sport Group in Victoria.

The referees are giving their instructions to the two opposing team captains, and the game is set to start in ten minutes.

If you can't see the live feed... just follow the link I posted a few posts earlier.

The father and son referees from Canada, Gilles and Pierre-Alexandre Brière have been selected to referee the final game, which is a solid vote of confidence.

I'm glad I have a large screen here at the office... as I can both update the rugby blog and see the live feed at the same time.

Live info will also be coming in from our High Performance Coordinator, and Team Manager, Marco Dispaltro.

15:00 until the game starts

The 4th and final quarter was marked by strong defense on the Canadian side, with the foursome of 3.5 Garett Hickling - 3.0 Mike Whitehead - 1.0 Trevor Hirschfield - 0.5 Daniel Paradis controlling the ball and not allowing GB back in the game.  They were able to wind down the clock with at least 6 minutes of solid 'keep away' in the 8-minute (stop time) quarter.

A combination of patience, foresight, and defensive tenacity enabled the Canadians to maintain their cool as well as their lead.

With the win, Team Canada maintains it's firm grip on the medal podium at the World Championships, as it is now a 4-time medal winner at this pinnacle level in the sport.  Only the American's can say the same thing, as their win over us guaranteed them a medal... the only question that remains is where that medal falls on the periodic table.

The live feed for the gold medal game at the World Championships should be available on the TVNZ web site in less than half an hour.  Load up the page, and then hit refresh around game time until you see a live link.

The link is set up, but currently there is no pre-game commentary.

The game starts at 2pm local time. To check what time it is in Christchurch, just click away...

GB, who won back-to-back European Championships in 2003 and 2005, haven't finished this high at the World Championships since their 4th place finish in 1995.  1.0 Paul Shaw and 2.5 Alan Ash were on both the 1995 and 2006 versions of the British National team.

THE GAME IS OVER...


...


and Canada HAS WON THE BRONZE MEDAL... with a four point victory over the Brits.... in a strong defensive battle. The final score was 23-19.

It's half time in the bronze medal game that pits us against our former coach, Joe Soares and his experienced GB team.

The score is 13-11 for Team Canada, the the third quarter is about to start.

The score was going back and forth, but our defensive intensity has gone up several notches from our disappointing game against the US.  We've had only one turnover, which we caused in the 2nd quarter, but we got some good plays to counterbalance that earlier error.

Things are progressing well in the team's plan... let's keep it up!!!

Japan has made a breakthrough at the Worlds!

Although only going 2-3 in the pool round, and squeaking ahead of Germany through the head-to-head tie-breaker rule, they've made the most of their Worlds experience and come through it all in 5th place, which will be their World Ranking in the next update, which I believe effectively comes in to place tomorrow.

At the 2003 Oceania Zonal Championships the Japanese had some close games, but couldn't make the breakthrough to the winning side.  They were similarly winless at the 2004 Super Series Down Under which was a four-team-triple-round-robin tournament between AUS, NZL, JAP, and GBR.

At the 2004 Paralympic Games, Australia needed an overtime period to secure a win over Japan 48-47 in the pool round, but that was as close as the Japanese got to a win in Athens.

The only Japanese wins at the 2005 Oceania Zonals was against the world #18 ranked team from South Africa.

There's got to be a lot of happy people in the land of the rising sun tonight!

SWE 36 - NED 30 (for 11th)

SWI 36 - DEN 31 (for 9th)

GER 40 - BEL 37 (for 7th)

JAP 48 - AUS 46 (for 5th !!!)
(that's a HUGE upset...)

The results page is now up-to-date!

The team had a pretty solid meeting after the game yesterday and earlier today as well in order to best prepare for GB.  The boys want this medal, and are promising to play a very disciplined style and to focus on the small things in order to let the big things happen on their own.

These geese will fly in formation... with a different leader at different times... until the goal is done.

20 minutes until game time!

After competing in a pool that they could have swum better in, the Swedes have pulled off two straight wins to claim 9th place at the 2006 World Championships.

In the other gym, the Swiss have overcome the Danes to climb out of the basement of the rankings and emerge as the #11 ranked team in the world.  The Danes will now fall back to 12th place from their original 9th place seed.

Team Canada is about to warm up...

Scores, when known, will be posted to our results page.

The latest US game report can be found, which summarizes the crossover game from the American perspective.

Day 3 and Day 4 photos from the Worlds can also be checked out in a larger size than those available on the World's site directly on the photographer's web page.

A new sportsreel on the semi-finals is now available from TV3.

There is also a brief report on the TVNZ site that you can review at your convenience.

We're now about two hours from game time from today's first matches, which pits Sweden vs. The Netherlands in the game for 9th place, and Switzerland against the Danes, who qualified for their first ever world championships this year, ahead of the Swiss.

The gold medal final game at the 2006 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships will be available through a link on the TVNZ web site.

The specific link should be viewable through the above link later this afternoon.

The gold medal final starts at 14:00 local time in Christchurch.

Follow this link to see the current local time in Christchurch, so that you can determine the game's starting time in your own time zone.

Make sure you are in front of as good a computer as you have access to in order to make the streaming technology run as smooth as possible.  If they show any shots of the crowd, it's likely that you'll see a bed of red & white screaming out for the Wheelblacks too!

The Bronze Medal Game, which is between ourselves and Great Britain, starts at 12:00 local time, right before the gold medal match.

Stay tuned...

The final score was 25-23 for New Zealand... and the home Kiwis are going to the gold medal match, with the Brits facing off in a re-match game against the hungry Canadians!

Tinker takes his time... but scores with 17 seconds left...
25-22 for NZL

Ash still with the ball... GB counting down the time... beautiful pass from Ash to Andy Barrow for the goal...

... foul by Andy Barrow....

GAME OVER... New Zealand has won, and is heading to the finals of the World Championships on their home soil!

Dan Buckingham comes back quickly to score for the Kiwis...

Ash with the ball, covered by Buckingham... crosses center, looking for options.... NZL showcasing good defence....

... Ash with the ball still... less than 40 seconds left... throws a long passs... Goal for GB.... 31 seconds left....

Ash with the ball... getting close to the key... pushing through and being denied by Tinker at the cone...

Frishberg running some effective interference .....

Frishberg scores!

23-21 with 1:35 left.

Buckingham with the ball, being covered by Barrow.... but scores anyways and brings the lead to 3 for New Zealand...

Dan Buckingham scores... with 2:30 left....

Ash gets a breakaway goal to bring the margin back to 2...

Time out NZL called by Geremy Tinker...

21-19 for the Kiwis... with 3:19 left... with the ball and with the jump... it looks good for them!

New Zealand ... Buckingham with the ball... covered by Ash...

GB now with Ash, Frishberg, Barrow, & Roberts...

Tinker hacked Morrison for a penalty goal.

3:31 left and Sholto Taylor scores!

21-19 NZL

... Tinker picks it off... TURNOVER... and calls a time out...

Johnson is having major issues with his chair... so he gets pulled and Sholto Taylor who is now PPS as a 2.0 comes in to replace him. Johnson is out of the game! There are now a critical four minutes left in the game...

Buckingham with the goal.... 20-18 for the Kiwis

Still with the same players on the floor...

The Kiwi's 3-2-2-1 against the 2.5-2.5-2.5-0.5 lineup of Great Britain.

Ash scores to pull GB to within one goal... 19-18....

Bob Lopez and Darren Roberts are the referees...

... and there are still more equipment problems for Kiwi Captain Tim Johnson...

19-17 NZL still... with 4:44 minutes left in the final quarter...

Tim Johnson has an equipment time out... with his right wheel going down

The game is a wrap... and the US won by 2... by a score of 25-23. We're off to a team meeting, and more info will follow in 15 minutes.

Thus far at the Worlds, the US has beaten their opponents by comfortable margins, ranging from 8 in the New Zealand game to 36 in their game against Denmark.  In fact, their average margin of victory has been over 16 points coming in to this crossover game against Canada, who they beat my a mere two goals.

A win is a win though, and the Americans will be in their fourth consecutive World Championship gold medal match tomorrow against the winner of the Great Britain / New Zealand game.

The game was marked with an unusual amount of unforced errors by both teams, and the game was there for the taking by either side.

Q1   6 - 7
Q2   4 - 5
Q3   6 - 5
Q4   7 - 8

The NZL - GB game is in the 4th quarter, and still close with New Zealand leading 19-17 with less than six minutes left in the game ... GB is running with their 2.5 - 2.5 - 2.5 - 0.5 lineup of Collins-Ash-Morrison-Coggan. The Kiwis are running with 3-2-2-1 with Buckingham-Johnson-Tinker-Oughton.

The battle between Canada and the United States is raging as I write this entry.... the game is likely in the 3rd quarter right now.

I'll know more by 21:40 or so EST.

In the meantime, check out some of these stories, which you can review on the following sites:

Lakeshore - Day 3 summary

Day 4 photos from the WWRC web site


... and the latest Sportcom press release:

Une fiche de 1-1 pour les Canadiens au dernier jour des préliminaires

Montréal, 14 septembre 2006 (Sportcom) – Le Canada a conclu la ronde préliminaire des Championnats du monde de rugby en fauteuil roulant avec une victoire et une défaite, jeudi, à Christchurch, en Nouvelle-Zélande. Invaincus avant cette dernière journée du premier tour, les Canadiens ont subi leur première défaite du tournoi, 33-32, contre la Grande-Bretagne. Dans l’autre rencontre, les Canadiens ont signé un gain de 46-33 contre la Suède.

Comme l’a indiqué Daniel Paradis, de Sainte-Foy, le Canada tirait de l’arrière, mais il est ensuite revenu dans le match pour finalement s’incliner.

La troupe de Benoit Labrecque, troisième équipe au classement mondial, termine donc en deuxième place de la ronde préliminaire et affrontera les États-Unis, vendredi, en demi-finale. À noter que les Américains occupent le sommet du classement mondial.

« Ça va être une reprise de ce que nous avons vécu aux Jeux paralympiques d’Athènes. Les États-Unis sont très forts, mais si on ouvre la machine comme il le faut, si on prend soin du ballon et faisons des passes seulement lorsque ça sera nécessaire, nous pourrons les battre. Si on compte tous nos buts, nous serons en bonne position », a expliqué Daniel Paradis.

Fabien Lavoie et Patrice Simard, tous deux de Québec, sont les autres Québécois membres de l’équipe canadienne.

À Athènes, le Canada avait défait les États-Unis 24-20 en demi-finale pour ensuite terminer le tournoi avec une médaille d’argent à la suite d’un revers de 31-29 contre la Nouvelle-Zélande.

TV New Zealand (with other links to related articles)

TV3 (New Zealand) (for those who missed this link when I published it the other day)

The final two time slots had four games where the seeds held, although the Brits needed overtime to put away the Aussies 42-41.  The Aussies needed a significant win over the Brits to make it in to the medal round, as they lost to Canada by four goals in our earlier game this week.  Winning or losing by a single goal to the Brits wouldn't have made a difference from their point of view.

Here's a little refresher course on the tie-breaking procedures we use in this sport, where head-to-head games amongst teams with identical win/loss records is critical.

5.0 Tie Breaking

The following system shall be used to resolve ties at all IWRF sanctioned events.


5.1 Games

All games at IWRF sanctioned events shall be played until a winner is declared.  Games that are tied at the end of regulation time shall continue through as many overtime periods as a necessary to resolve the tie.  This applies to all rounds of play.


5.2 Preliminary Round

If, at the end of the preliminary round, two or more teams are tied in the point totals, the following procedures shall be used, in the order presented, to resolve the tie.  As soon as one of these procedures is found to resolve the tie, the subsequent procedures are not to be used.

1.   Forfeit

2.   Points – Tied Teams

3.   Goal Differential – Tied Teams

4.   Most Goals – Tied Teams

5.   Goal Differential – All Games

6.   Most Goals – All Games

If another tie situation arises subsequent to the resolution of an earlier tie, these procedures are to be used again, in order, beginning with the first.


5.2.1 Forfeit

If teams are tied in points at the end of the preliminary round, any tied team which forfeit a game during the preliminary round shall be deemed to have lost the tie.


5.2.2 Points – tied teams

If there is still a tie, the standings shall be determined based on points gained in games among the tied teams.  Points shall be assigned as described in article 4.3 for wins and losses in the games among the tied teams.  Once points are assigned, the tied teams are reordered from the highest to the lowest point total.


5.2.3 Goal Differential – Tied Teams

If there is still a tie, the standings will be decided on the basis of the goal differential among the tied teams, during only those games when they played each other.

To calculate the goal differential, total the number of goals that a team scored during preliminary round games against the other tied teams and subtract the total number of goals scored against that team in those games.  The difference is the goal differential.

Once all goal differentials have been calculated, the tied teams are reordered from the highest to lowest differential.


5.2.4 Most Goals – Tied Teams

If there is still a tie, the standings will be decided based on which team scored the most goals in the preliminary round games between the tied teams.  Tied teams are reordered from the highest to lowest total number of goals.


5.2.5 Goal Differential – All Games

If there is still a tie, the standings will be decided on the basis of the goal differential among the tied teams, during all preliminary round games.

To calculate the goal differential, total the number of goals that a team scored during preliminary round games and subtract the total number of goals scored against that team.  The difference is the goal differential.

Once all goal differentials have been calculated, the tied teams are reordered from the highest to lowest differential.


5.2.6 Most Goals – All Games

If there is still a tie, the standings will be decided based on which team scored the most goals during all preliminary round games. Tied teams are reordered from the highest to lowest total number of goals.

To translate the above system, the Japanese and Germans were tied with identical 2-3 records, but in their head-to-head game, the Japanese won.  Thus, even with an overall inferior +/- differential, the Japanese take the #3 slot in Pool A.  Similarly, the Danes take the A5 slot over the Swiss due to their head-to-head game, despite the fact that the Swiss had an overall superior +/- stat.

Check out the grid to see graphically how this looks, and check out the schedule for another way of looking at it.

In today's matchups, the two north american powerhouses will write another chapter in the continuing Murderball saga.  Watching those two teams, with so much history between them, going at it is like watching a movie in the making.  We were hoping to meet them at some point.  Now's the time!!!

Game 31 - A5 vs. B6   DEN vs. SWE
Game 32 - B5 vs. A6   NED vs. SWI

Game 33 - B3 vs. A4   AUS vs. GER
Game 34 - A3 vs. B4   JAP vs. BEL

Game 35 - A1 vs. B2   USA vs. CAN
Game 36 - B1 vs. A2   GBR vs. NZL

The winners of game 31 and 32 will play for 9th place on the final day of the world championships.  Those who triumph in games 33 & 34 will be in the bronze game, while the winners of Games 35 & 36 will play for gold, and the losers of those critical games will face each other for bronze.

As previously mentioned, the gold medal game will be available online... although the teams involved are yet to be determined... that's today's job.

Success is a Nike ad.  Just do it!!!

Our final game of the day was against our friends from Sweden, who were our gracious hosts at last year's Astra-Tech Games in Gothenburg, which has been a golden city to our national team program.

The team played solidly, and defeated the Swedes by a score of 46-33.  The yellow and blue boys took it all in stride and are now focussing on maintaining as high a rank as possible, which they can do if they win their crossover game and their final game at the worlds.  Afterwards, they'll be concentrating their attention towards the 2007 European Championships, which might take place in Finland.

Meanwhile, in the opposite gym, the Americans were looking strong in their win over the host New Zealand team, with an 8-goal margin of victory. The US will be A1 and the Kiwis will be A2. Their opponents in the B pool are yet to be determined, but with our record, we will have one of those critical top-2 pool positions.

Both the grid and the schedule pages have now been updated after today's fourth time slot. The results of the final two games, which will decide the all-important crossover games, will be posted tomorrow here, or later tonight on the official world's web site.

~That is all~

Well, there's good news... and there's bad news.

On the one hand, after three games of continuous observation, the classifiers have once again decided that Great Britain's dominant player, Mark Fosbrook, is classed out of the sport. I feel for the three teams who first encountered the ineligible player, but that's how it goes in this sport. Fosbrook is pretty upset at the situation, so it's rough on him too.

On the other hand, we lost by a single point to the Brits. The game featured an uncharacteristicly high number of turnovers by our team, and some poor passes. At the half, we were down by five, and although we pulled it together in the second part of the game, we came up a goal short.

The scores for CAN and GB by quarter were:

Q1   9-11
Q2   6-9
Q3   11-9
Q4   6-4

The latest available news in the games that are currently being played is from early in the 2nd quarter, where the Germans were losing to the Japanese, and the Aussies were leading the Dutch.

In other classification news, Germany's Salih Koseoglu was reclassified from a 2.0 to a 2.5, and Japan's Yoshinobu Takahashi was classed down from a 1.0 to a 0.5.

The next game between GB and Australia will decide who goes to the medal round, and who plays for 5th place. If the Aussies beat GB by enough points, GB will be playing for 5th... so we'll soon see how much they have in the tank after their game against us. At least they'll have a bit of a break though, as that critical game is in the final time slot of the day.

Our next game is against the winless Swedes, who will have to shuffle their lineups based on Pelle's new classification. Sweden has never placed lower than 7th at the World Championships, but will do no better than 9th this time after having four straight losses in the pools.

The final game of the world championships will be available live through a New Zealand based web site.

Full info, and an up to date story can be found here.

There is also a two-minute video link underneath the photo of Fabien Lavoie.

Here is another video report from their other television network.

Thanks Kiwi Arthur! :)

Another day, another upset... the Belgians, who now have two of their former national team players coaching other countries (South Africa and France), still had enough depth to humble the Swedes by the lopsided score of 47-35 in the first match of the day in Christchurch. In the game in the other gym, the Kiwis handled the Danes, and put them away by a dozen goals.

Full scores are up on the scoreboard, and the grid is up to date as well.

There are a few new photos posted both up on the Worlds photo pages, as well as on the Corson Harris site, including quite a few shots of Canadians, including Garett, Dave, Trevor, Whitey, Fabien, and Daniel.

It's crunch time in Christchurch!

The Battle with Britain started 15 minutes ago... but there is no news as yet as to whether or not their controversial big man is in the lineup or not.

Here's a timezone site which you may want to bookmark, as the time differences between the various parts of our own country and New Zealand vary quite a bit. At least there is only one time zone over their entire country.

The media people at Sportcom have heard from our team, and their report appears below:

Fiche parfaite pour le Canada

Montréal, 13 septembre 2006 (Sportcom) – L’équipe canadienne masculine de rugby en fauteuil roulant connaît actuellement un parcours sans faille aux Championnats du monde présentés à Christchurch, en Nouvelle-Zélande.

La formation canadienne, dont font partie les Québécois Fabien Lavoie, Daniel Paradis et Patrice Simard, a d’abord eu raison des Néerlandais par la marque de 49 à 31. Ce fut ensuite au tour de l’équipe belge de s’incliner devant les Canadiens, 39 à 35.  Les Australiens ont connu un sort similaire, concédant la partie aux représentants de l’unifolié, 34 à 29.

« Notre plus gros match jusqu’à présent à été contre l’Australie, a souligné Paradis, de Ste-Foy.  Le pointage parle de lui-même.  C’est un très bon résultat. Nous avons contrôlé la rencontre du début à la fin.  Nous avons suivi le plan de match et n’avons pas fait d’erreurs.  Ça nous donne confiance. » 

« L’intensité grimpe de match en match, a ajouté l’athlète de 45 ans.  Le match contre l’Angleterre risque donc d’être chaudement disputé. »

Jeudi, le Canada disputera deux matchs, dont un contre l’Angleterre, seule autre équipe invaincue de la poule canadienne.

Here's a report from the organizers, which highlights yesterday's New Zealand - Japan game.

New Zealand won both matches in Pool A to remain undefeated at the World Wheelchair Rugby Championships in Christchurch today.

After a narrow win over Japan 34-32 in the morning, the Wheel Blacks were far more assured in the afternoon, defeating Germany 38-30.

Wheel Blacks captain Tim Johnson said that there was a sharp diffference in performance between the two games.

"We controlled the game much better this afternoon. This morning we had a slow start and let the Japanese control the flow of the game for a good part, whereas this afternoon we were muc h more controlled from the whistle."

"It is so much easier when you are not having to play catch up as we did in the morning," he said.

Against the Japanese the Wheel Blacks were down 23-25 going into the last quarter and with 10 seconds to play the scores were locked at 32-32, but composure in those last crucial seconds was enough to earn victory.

The afternoon was more clinical with the Wheel Blacks ahead 18-15 at half-time and 29-23 at three-quarter time.

"It was actully quite tiring on court. The temperatures were probably as high as about 30 degrees so we may have to look at using our coooling spray more as well as our ice vests," he said.

New Zealand plays Belgium, one of the lower ranked sides tomorrow morning, and then it is the big clash against the United States to see who will top the pool.

"We will analyse how we feel after tomorrow morning¹s match and then decide on our game plan.  It's a game we want to win, but we must also be mindful of the bigger matches that lie ahead on Friday and possibly Saturday."

While New Zealand and the United States look likely in Pool A, it¹s a tough three-way battle in Pool B among Canada, Great Britain and Australia.  Canada took the early advantage when it defeated Australia 39-35 this afternoon.

Tomorrow Great Britain plays Canada in the morning and the all-important clash with Australia in the afternoon.  It could be this last game of pool play that decides the semi-finalist.

New Zealand scorers against Japan were: Tim Johnson and Dan Buckingham 11, Sholto Taylor 7, Curtis Palmer and Gerey Tinker 2, Jai Waite 1.

Against Germany: Taylor 10, Johnson 9, Tinker and Palmer 6, Buckingham 5, Dave Klinkhamer 2.

Today's game recaps included the tournament's first upsets, with the #8 seeded Japanese falling in quadruple overtime to the last-ranked Swiss team by a score of 30-29.  The second bottom rated team from the Netherlands beat the #7 ranked Swedish team by two goals, which has got to be hard for the Swedes to take, having consistently beaten the Dutch in major tournaments over the past dozen years.

Game 7   USA vs. GER   47 - 30
Game 8   CAN vs. BEL   34 - 29
Game 9   AUS vs. SWE   52 - 38
Game 10   DEN vs. SUI   27 - 26
Game 11   NZL vs. JAP   34 - 32
Game 12   GBR vs. NED   42 - 22
Game 13   CAN vs. AUS   39 - 35
Game 14   USA vs. DEN   53 - 17
Game 15   NZL vs. GER   38 - 30
Game 16   GBR vs. BEL   45 - 38
Game 17   SWE vs. NED   29 - 31
Game 18   JAP vs. SUI   29 - 30 (in 4x OT!!!!)

Our next game is going to be very interesting... the name on everyone's lips from every team at the world's is 'Fosbrook'.  Various protests and appeals follow this player everywhere he goes, as he is able to do things on the court that no other player on the planet can do.  He isn't a quad, which makes it more difficult for the classifiers, but they are professionals, and they'll classify him in or out for good at these world championships.  I'm sure they've been looking at him closely in game situations over these past three games where he's been the #1 dominant player on the court, and we'll soon see how the latest rounds of protests and appeals went in this controversial case.  Even without Fosbrook, GB has an experienced team that always makes their opponents work their hardest.  They are our first opponent of the day, but we'll be ready for whatever they've got to throw at us.

Meanwhile, check out the grid and the scoreboard.  Game results will be as real time as possible tonight.

Here's a Day Two report from our Team Leader, Cathy Cadieux:

Both games went very well today.  The boys executed their game plans exceptionally well with no turnovers in the first match against Belgium and no turnovers in the first half of the game against Australia.  We led by six at the half against the Aussies and then gave up two turnovers in the second half.  But they played with a great deal of poise and control.  Ian Chan looked really good today.

We're up against a very tough GB team tomorrow with Mark Fosbrook in their line up.  He's destroying the competition.  We'll see if he's classed out before game time tomorrow.  If not, it will be tough game, but a game that we can win.  We play a team, right?  Just another team.  We are prepared and we will play our game.

Veronica is doing amazing work for us and her work with Benoit has really given us an edge.

So, all is well here.  Staff meeting at 5:30, dinner at 6:00, team meeting right after dinner, game plan review and then to bed.  Game time tomorrow at 10:30am.

More later....

Meanwhile, the US has a decent report on their two games today on Lakeshore's web site.

Canada came out on top of the #6 seeded Australian team by a 5-goal margin. :) The final score was either 39-34 or 39-35, as there was some sort of controversy over the final goal.

The Canadians were extremely disciplined, taking only a single penalty late in the game.  Our team started off really strong, and only had a small breakdown in the 3rd quarter to mar a nearly perfectly executed game plan.  Both the offensive and defensive players showed a lot of intensity, which we'd expect from them in such a key game.

The Aussies started with their 2.5 - 2.5 - 2.5 - 0.5 lineup, and changed over to their high/low 3.5 - 3.5 - 0.5 - 0.5 lineup in the second quarter.  Brad Dubberley, their perennial allstar, seems to have a nagging shoulder injury that is limiting his effectiveness on the court.

Unlike some other sports, where you get several shots at the top of the podium, in wheelchair rugby, you have to finish in the top two spots of your pool in order to move on to the medal round.  A team that places 3rd or 4th in their pool only gets the opportunity to compete for 5th place.  Similarly, the bottom two teams after the pool round compete in crossover games for 9th.

With the win over Australia, the 3rd ranked team in the pool, things look better now for the defending world champions, who after today's two games sit on top of their pool, tied with Great Britain with 3-0 records.  The Brits, with controversial player Mark Fosbrook on their team, have been raking up big points and huge margins of victory over their opponents.  Fosbrook is currently classified as a 3.5R player, and is being closely watched by the classifiers.  He had previously been classed out of the sport at other major international tournaments, but has been playing as a 3.5 within the British League since being classed out earlier.

In other games, the first upset almost occured between Japan and host New Zealand, as Japan scored in the final quarter with seven seconds left on the clock to tie it up, only to see their chances fade when the Kiwis took the winner with two seconds left on the clock.  The score on the scoreboard appeared to be 34-32 for the Kiwis, but we're awaiting the final stats on that one.

In earlier games today, the Aussies handily beat the Swedes, and GB won in a blowout over the Dutch.  The American site has a post about their 17-point victory for their team over the Germans, so their game today was nothing like the narrow 1-point victory the Americans had over the Germans at the Canada Cup less than three months ago.

The closest game involved #9 Denmark, who squeaked past #12 Switzerland by a 28-27 score.

I'll have more information, including all of today's game scores, in about 90 minutes.

The grid is now updated after our second game at the 2006 World Championships, with the red & white squad prevailing over the steady Belgians by a score of 34 - 29.

The game featured steady offence by the Canadian team, which allowed only a single turnover throughout the entire game, and even that turnover was recovered within two seconds. The team only used three timeouts in the game, which is also a good sign.

The quarters were close though, as Belgium has some very smart veteran players, and their new 3.5 has wheels. The quarters broke down as follows:

Q1:   11-10
Q2:   7 - 5
Q3:   9 - 9
Q4:   7 - 5

The Belgians started out playing their 3.5 - 2.0 - 1.5 - 1.0 lineup of Mertens - Genijn - Verhaegen - Meersschaut, and then went to their regular lineup of Budeners (3.0) - Vanacker (2.5) - Genijn (2.0) and one of their 0.5 players.

The team is getting psyched now for their critical game against Australia, which is always tight, and starts in about an hour. Stay tuned...

The team was picked up at their hotel for the first game about an hour ago, at 07:15 their time, in preparation for their next game, which is against Belgium.

Team Canada plays in the 1st and the 4th time slots of the day, which should allow me to hear from the team twice before midnight EST back here in Ottawa.

I'll post those game scores and a few extra details, with a longer report to come out in the morning when I receive a full report by e-mail from the team.

Our second game will be against the 6th seeded Aussies, who we've prepared well for. The team is psyched for both games today and promises to come out blazing!

On Day 1 of the World Championships, the seeds held, with the top three teams in Pool A and Pool B, showcasing their talent.

In the closest game, the Japanese came on strong and closed the first half to within three points of the Americans, who eventually took the game by 10 points.

In another game which was close early in the game, the Kiwis led by the narrow margin of 9-8 at the end of the first quarter against the Swiss, but a blistering second quarter that stretched the lead to 18-12 quickly made the game safe.  The final score was 41-29 for the top-ranked New Zealand team.

The Canadian national team players are doing really well.  They played solidly in their first game today against The Netherlands, which was to be expected.  They were a little tight to start but then settled down very quickly.  If there were a game ball, it would have gone to Travis. He played great today!  And young T-Bone Hirschfield made a fantastic play at game's end.  With four seconds on the clock, we had G in the key ready to take a long pass from Mike Whitehead.  They tied up G and so Trevor positioned himself perfectly, caught the pass from Mike and went in to score the goal.

The first day featured some high scoring games, including:

NZL 49 - SUI 29
CAN 49 - NED 31
USA 44 - JAP 34
GBR 59 - SWE 25
AUS 49 - BEL 37
GER 56 - DEN 34

Tonight's games (our time) feature two games each for every team:

09:00 - United States vs. Germany; CANADA vs. Belgium.
10:30 - Australia vs. Sweden; Denmark vs. Switzerland
12:00 - New Zealand vs. Japan; Great Britain vs. Netherlands
13:30 - CANADA vs. Australia; United States vs. Denmark
15:00 - New Zealand vs. Germany; Great Britain vs. Belgium
16:30 - Sweden vs. Netherlands; Japan vs. Switzerland

There are some photos now available up on the World's site, which feature The Rock, our own Martin Larocque, from Embrun, Ontario (the small town that everyone who was at our 2006 Nationals in Halifax now knows about), and some of our referees, our team staff, and the only Canadian classifier at the worlds, Jenn Stodler.

Once the Opening Ceremonies wraps up, the first day of competition will see six games, with every team playing a single game.

Time Game #, Teams
12:45 1 #1 NZL vs. #12 SUI
12:45 2 #2 CAN vs. #11 NED
14:15 3 #4 USA vs. # 8 JAP
14:15 4 #3 GBR vs. # 7 SWE
15:45 5 #6 AUS vs. #10 BEL
15:45 6 #5 GER vs. # 9 DEN

I'm trying to determine when the last time we played the Dutch... they weren't at the 2005 Astra-Tech Games in Sweden, where we played Germany, Sweden, Belgium, and Norway... they've never qualified for the Paralympic Games, and they weren't in our pool at either the 2002 or 1998 Worlds.

They haven't been to either of the international tournaments that we regularly attend in Tampa or Birmingham, and they've never been to a Canada Cup (which this year was quickly filled up by the top-8 countries in the world).

Eleven years ago... when the web was young... we met them at the 1995 World Championships in our first game... and won by a score of 33-24. We have two returning players from that game, namely 0.5 Jared Funk and 3.5 Garret Hickling. Judy Zelman, who played on that team, is now the chair of our rugby committee, and is the IWRF Secretary. She is in New Zealand, along with the only other present member of our 1995 Team, her husband, Eron Main, who is now the IWRF Competitions Commissioner. Eron was our Equipment Manager at the 1995 Worlds. On the Dutch side, they have one of the same team staffers, Joke Beekman, and high-pointer Ruud van Luijk.

If any of our faithful readers can point out a tournament since then where we've met the Dutch team, I'll give you credit in the blog.

I'm interested in a few of the other games, including a couple of games where the teams know each other well. The Swedes and the Brits will tussle again, with their most recent games at the 2006 Canada Cup both going to GB. We'll also get to see how speedster Shinichi Shimakawa and his Japanese teammates do against US players who Shin is now very familiar with. Denmark is a bit of a darkhorse, and one that we would have like to have played against in Gothenburg at the Astra-Tech Games. They are in the other pool, so we may again pass like proverbial ships in the night. The Danes take on Germany in the other game of European rivals.

~That is all~

Starting tomorrow, Marco will have internet access at the gym, and by night time we should have some news on the Canadian team's first game, as well as reports on some of the other five games that take place on Day 1 of the World Championships.

Here is our first report from the field, directly from Marco:

September 11th 2006,

Christchurch, New Zealand,

We just had our last practice this afternoon at the very modern and centrally located Westpac Centre where Canada will try to defend it’s 2002 title.

The guys can’t wait to get out there and kick some a**. It has been a long time coming and although the last couple of practices have been good, our first couple of practices were particularly nasty :) where our intra-squad games proved to be quite interesting.

Presently, I am sitting at an Internet café listening to a radio interview over kiwi airwaves and they are discussing the World Championships. It will be quite interesting to see what the local interest will be as the facility can hold over 10,000 people.

People actively stop us on the street, asking where we are from and wishing us good luck for the games, so people seem to be in the know and eagerly anticipating the competition.

Everything seems to be in place for us to have a great tournament, injuries are practically nonexistent except for little nicks here and there but overall the team is quite healthy.

We seem to be the envy of lots of nations with all the sports experts that travel with us and that will hopefully give us a huge edge. We have worked very hard as a staff to give the players all that is required for them to perform and they have responded very well and we are quite pleased with their constant progression. All the sacrifices the guys have made make us quite confidant, but all of this needs to be confirmed on the actual field of play. Players are hyped and looking to send a loud and clear message to the world that Canada will not rest on it’s past glory and will be on the prowl – so watch the hell out!

Game time will be September 11th at 20:45 EST and we will be playing the Dutch. They are the last seed here at the tournament but they have a few players that can cause some problems particularly class 1.5 Jean Paul Weijgertze and class 3.5 Johan Sloot.

Opening ceremonies will be at 11:00 a.m. (local time).

- Marco

Photos - Photos - Photos

Everyone loves photos as they tell a thousand words each. As we get them, we'll post some of the best, but another place you can check for them is the Corson Harris web page. They've taken some very nice shots, and have quite an assortment of other wheelchair rugby shots on their site, including some shots of Canadian players at last year's New Zealand National Championships and other international rugby events.

From what I can decipher on the Swedish site, the Swedish team are now in the same hotel as us, and are settling in nicely with some light practice to shake off the jetlag.

The real deal starts early next week. Check back here then and we'll get this blog rolling!

As the teams keep popping up in Christchurch, one at a time, one thing remains a constant... everyone wants the Cup... and everyone thinks they can win it.

However, since the first World Championship in Switzerland in 1995, only four countries have medalled at either the Worlds or at the Paralympic Games.

Sorry about the blank space... but Blogger doesn't seem to like tables too much, no matter how often I tweak the design... you can see the table below...

Flag	Team	Code	Gold		Silver		Bronze		Total
			WC	PG	WC	PG	WC	PG
	United States	USA	2	2	1	0	0	1	6
	Canada	CAN	1	0	1	2	1	0	5
	New Zealand	NZL	0	1	1	0	1	2	5
	Australia	AUS	0	0	0	1	1	0	2

Another three countries have placed 4th at either a World Championships or a Paralympic Games (Great Britain, Sweden, and Belgium), with the Brits having three 4th place finishes. Canada, Sweden, and Belgium have one 4th place finish apiece.

However, this is history, and we're living in reality, and all countries have made leaps and bounds in the sport, so medal positions aren't assured for anyone, with recent 1-point differential games involving the following teams at the 2006 Canada Cup: USA over GER, CAN over AUS, GBR over CAN, SWE over GER, and USA over NZL (in triple overtime in the championship game!!!)

One week earlier, at the 2006 North American Cup in Birmingham, Alabama, there were also a number of games decided by one point, including a triple overtime win by the US over GB. Another notable single point victory was earned by Canada over New Zealand. Canada also featured three of the four tournament all-stars at this international tournament (Daniel Paradis, Patrice Simard, and Ian Chan).

Japan has possibly the fastest player in the world in 3.0 Shinichi Shimawakawa, who won the USQRA Player of the Year award this past season for his contributions to his club team, the Phoenix Heat, who won the Division 1 Championship at the USQRA Finals this past April. He was also the MVP at the Championships, and at most every tournament he attended all season. Those familiar with the Murderball movie will also know his Phoenix teammates 2.0 Andy Cohn and 1.0 Scott Hogsett, who were both featured prominently in that successful movie.

While here in Canada many of us were relaxing this past long weekend, our team in Christchurch was gearing up for the World Championships in Christchurch, where it's almost always tomorow!

Yes, the time difference is a bit much... while it's 2:20 in the afternoon here in Ottawa, it's already 6:20 a.m. tomorrow morning down where the team is in New Zealand. That's one of the reasons we went early, as it typically takes one recovery day for every one of the time zones you pass through.

The team actually arrived on Wednesday, with some of them a little worse for the wear with colds, but luckily enough, the "cold plague" seems to have passed and they're all on the mend.

Training is going well and our friends in New Zealand have been awesome, as always. Kiwis make great hosts! The weather is great and acclimatization is going well.

Lately, they have been on the hunt for freezers and other cooling things and so our newest team member, Thomas, from PacSport, has been dubbed "Master Cool." That's a pretty good first nickname for someone new to our group, but my favourite is still "Magic Hammer" for our equipment manager, Steph, who really does some magic with those strong vices that he calls hands.

The Canadian family is happy and doing well!

More later when the team checks in again.

A number of returning veterans will be suiting up once again in their national team colours, but only six athletes have been to every Wheelchair Rugby World Championship and Paralympics since the start of this level of international competition in 1995.

Alan Ash (GBR), Garett Hickling (CAN), Steve Porter & George Hucks (AUS), and the New Zealand trio of Gary McMurray, Sholto Taylor, and Geremy Tinker are the Iron Men of the sport and all of them look to lead their teams back to the medal rounds at this year's World Championships. Here is a complete list of active national team players who have been to at least 5 of these events, either at the (WC) World Championship level or the (PG) Paralympic Games.

# CLASS ATHLETE COUNTRY WC PG
1= 2.5 ASH, Alan GBR 4 3
1= 3.5 HICKLING, Garett CAN 4 3
1= 2.0 McMURRAY, Gary NZL 4 3
1= 2.5 PORTER, Steve AUS 4 3
1= 2.0 TAYLOR, Sholto NZL 4 3
1= 2.0 TINKER, Geremy NZL 4 3
7= 3.0 HUCKS, George AUS 4 2
7= 2.0 MATTSSON, Jan-Owe SWE 4 2
7= 1.0 SHAW, Paul GBR 4 2
10. 2.5 PALMER, Curtis NZL 3 3
11= 3.0 CHAN, Ian CAN 3 2
11= 2.5 COLLINS, Troye GBR 3 2
11= 3.5 DUBBERLEY, Brad AUS 3 2
11= 2.0 JOHNSON, Timothy NZL 3 2
11= 1.0 LYDUCH, Norm USA 3 2
11= 2.0 WILLSIE, David CAN 3 2

The first Paralympic Games for the sport was in 1996, where wheelchair rugby was a demonstration sport in Atlanta. After that, it has been a full medal sport. In Atlanta, at the 1996 Paralympic Games, only six teams were allowed to participate, but since then it has been an eight-team field. Similarly, at the 1995 World Championships in Nottwil, Switzerland, only eight teams competed, and ever since then, in Toronto in 1998, and in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2002, twelve teams earned the rights to compete.

Team Canada landed in Christchurch on July 30th, and are now ready for their first day of training at the staging camp.

Here is a shot of our team, that was taken at the 2006 Canada Cup tournament in Burnaby, BC:



BACK ROW: Donald Royer (CWSA President), Bob Hirschfield (Assistant Manager/Equipment), Mélissa Lortie (Support staff),
David Cox (Sport Psychologist), Nancy Botting (Physiotherapist), Jennifer Cadieux (Team Nurse), Cathy Cadieux (Team Leader), Benoit Labrecque (Head Coach), Nicolas Lapointe (Asst. Equipment Manager), Thomas Zochowski (Sport Technologist)

MIDDLE ROW: Patrice Simard (#15), Marco Dispaltro (Team Manager / High Performance Coordinator), Mike Whitehead (#8), Jared Funk (#13), Trevor Hirschfield (#10), Garett Hickling (#5), Fabien Lavoie (#11), Daniel Paradis (#1), Travis Murao (#12), Adam Frost (Assistant Coach)

FRONT ROW: Martin Larocque (#7), Ian Chan (#6), Gordie Publicover (#3), Say Luangkhamdeng (#2), David Willsie (#14)

MISSING: Stéphan Charbonneau (Equipment Manager), Marc Deschênes (Asst. Equipment Manager), Isabelle Gagnon (Massage Therapist), Don Lane (Technical Support)