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