Blogs

As we're heading into the home stretch of our preparations for the World Championships a lot of friends and family have asked about the "home court advantage" factor. They wonder if it will add more pressure, or pump us up to perform even better.

Apologies for the lateness of the post but it’s a busy time for the team right now. All this week we’ve been at a preparation camp in Bath, put on by “Paralympics GB." Rugby is just one of many sports attending the camp which is designed to simulate the atmosphere of a multisport holding camp. A “holding camp” is a place where an entire Paralympic team will gather directly before a major event (such as London 2012) to acclimatize and prepare for their specific events.

09 Aug 2010 18:26

I’ve left it a while since my last blog entry. Call it a summer break if you will, but the truth is that not much has been happening on the playing side of things now that the season is over. That’s not to say that I haven’t been working! For the last month, the Worlds squad has been training hard ahead of our main pre-tournament camp in a couple of weeks’ time.

In our final edition of our series, we will look at Belgium and the top-ranked USA!

Belgium is a veteran team with a core of seasoned rugby players who have seen a lot of international action. As such, they can be a difficult team to play, especially if you get off to a slow start.

Some players to watch are:

In this special, double-edition of our series we'll travel to the southern hemisphere to take a look at Australia and New Zealand!

Australia is currently the #2-ranked team in the world for good reason. They have arguably the best player in the game today on their roster and Coach Brad Dubberley always has them ready to perform at their best. Look for Australia to keep the ball on the ground in Ryley Batt's hands.

This edition of our series focuses on one of the speediest teams in the world. . .Japan! They are currently ranked #7 overall and have given many of the top teams in the world some close games. Japan is a good dark-horse pick to knock off one of the top-seeded teams to get a medal.

Some players to watch are:

We will continue our journey of discovery with the #6-ranked team in the world, team Sweden. The Swedes are an up-and-coming team with a lot of relatively new faces to the international wheelchair rugby scene. They are characterized by their high-functioning and speedy high-pointers and they have been constantly improving under the tutelage of Bocci sensation Marco Dispaltro.

Some players to watch are:

Well, we are halfway into our July training camp and things are as intense as usual with Team Canada. With September approaching, our excitement is palpable and the intensity of camp has risen another notch. I think now is a good time to review the teams coming to Worlds, so let's start the first portion of my new series:

I’m happy to say that the pace of life has been slightly more relaxed since I returned from Canada. All that remained of GB’s domestic season was the National Championships at Stoke Mandeville. London players revert back to their league teams for this tournament so bragging rights were on the line between last year's winners, “Crusaders,” and this year's league winners and form team, “Storm”.

We're happy to introduce our newest blogger, Chris Rathje. Chris is not only a wheelchair rugby player, but he's also a published author and runs the motivational blog "Uplifting Empire." His book "Don't Be Afraid to Eat Soup With A Fork" came out this year and can be purchased through his blog.You can check out his blog here. Welcome to the blogging team, Chris!

Team Fire & Smile

Originally Appeared Online December 16, 2008