At a sold out, capacity crowd with fully armed guards, the Canadian boys pulled off a great win against Zimbabwe's Under 20 squad at Fili Stadium in Moscow.  It was a beautiful night for rugby, just a little breeze with a kiss of sun coming through the clouds to make for perfect playing conditions.  The boys came out strong and finished in the same manor against a very experienced Zimbabwe side.  As a spectator of this great sport, it is an amazing experience to see your team come out of the locker room and line up beside their opponents while singing our national anthem.  You can't help but feel a great sense of pride as 26 of Canada's finest young men sing (by sing, I mean shout) for their country as their last act before encountering the most physical encounters of their careers.

 The Build Up:

     The night before the game, we traveled to the stadium for our "captains run" or pre-game training session.  If there is no traffic, it is probably about a 20 minute drive, but as we are learning, there is never "no" traffic in Moscow.  If you ever get a chance to come to Moscow and you need to take a tour bus or any other mode of transport, I strongly suggest you bring along both an adult sized diaper and a barf bag.  Quite often a 3 lane highway accommodates up to 5 or 6 lanes and we have found that like the movie "fight club" the only rule is there are no rules.  As we were turning onto an onramp that should fit 2 lanes, one of the 5 cars that were trying to squeeze in got sandwiched by our bus causing what should have been a traffic jam.  Since there are no rules, traffic resumed like nothing ever happened other than a bus was stopped with another car stuck to its side.  During our hour or so wait for the police to come, we were lucky enough to witness another 2 or 3 accidents in the same area to help entertain the boys.  On that same note, there are also no real rules for parking.  It is not uncommon to see cars parked on the sidewalk and the street in whichever fashion they deem fit.  The 20 million citizens of Moscow have managed to work within the infrastructure that would seem to be a good size for 2 million. 

Game Day:

     The morning of the game, we gather for a big breakfast including some of our favourite Russian Cuisine.  Hedgehog (I don't mean the delicious chocolates, I mean the rodent), beet salad, stewed cabbage and a myriad of fatty mystery meats.   Following breakfast, I spent the next few hours working individually with the guys on some stretching, trigger point work and activation exercises.  I think it is important to note that the busiest staff member is Ben Suen; our team therapist.  Ben works with these guys non-stop from morning to night making sure they are healthy enough to train and compete.  I hope the boys recognize how amazing he is at what he does and what an integral part of this team he is.  After treatments and sessions with me, we had a little R and R leading up to our greatest meal since landing in Moscow.  We had some chicken, pasta, broccoli and other foods that we may take for granted at home.  For the first time on tour, my stomach didn't feel like there were two midgets trying to fight their way out of a garbage bag. 

The Day After:

       We started the day with another glorious breakfast featuring the same cuisine as every other day.  We then headed to a hydro session at one of the sites of the 1980 Moscow Olympics (our hotel is a group of 3 that were used as the athlete's village in 1980 as was Fili Stadium).  The pool was great and the staff was amazingly helpful.  One thing I should note; it is not uncommon for women to be in the change rooms or rest rooms while men are using the facilities.  As we walked in, we had a wonderful elderly lady that reminded me of my grandmother to help us get settled in.  You could tell she was quite happy to see some new faces and body parts.  She noted to our interpreter Sue, that it was quite refreshing to see some young "balls" for once.  I guess only old guys use the pool now, so I was quite happy that we were able to make her day.  I know that was a bit offside, but I felt it should be shared. 

       After our pool excursion, we had a couple hours to kill.  A few of the coaches and players went down to the local Gypsy flea market to scope out some of the local merchandise.  It was quite the experience to say the least.  Thousands of dolls, jewelry boxes, local carvings, DVD's, furry hats and street meat vendors inhabit little wooden shanty's with items to sell.  I will follow up on the street meat vendors and the gypsy market in my next article as I feel I need to share with you our greatest experience to date in Moscow.  We stumbled upon a supermarket in the local mall and we were able to buy some snacks and items to bring to our meals with us!  We stocked up on Bolognese sauce, vinegar, chips, chocolate and even dropped the equivalent of about ten dollars for a tiny jar of peanut butter.  I know these things seem pathetic, but when more than half the team is having some severe gastro-intestinal problems from the food we have to eat, these little things are a welcome site. 

More Useless Info:

• The women are still beautiful and elegant.  More importantly I have to touch on the Male fashion.  It is not uncommon to see cream shoes with cream pants or white shoes with white pants along with the man purse.  I have to say, this is cutting edge fashion and really hope it takes in Vancouver as my cream shoes have not seen a lot of action lately (either have my cream pants).
• The BBC news (our only English speaking channel) is still depressing as it was in Japan.
• Sue (our interpreter) is unreal.  She has worked her butt off for us and has been a great addition to our team.  If you come to Russia without a translator, you are far braver than me.
• Look at my face book page.  I will have some photos of the trip to date.
• We have seen more than 3 different training venues (local professional soccer teams) and they have been unreal.  A beautiful stadium and practice fields surrounded by apartments seems to be the norm.
• A woman smiled at me the other day and a guy shook my hand.
• I think our bus driver may have killed a few people in his past (not with his bus).  He looks like an ex-hockey player, or at least his hair does.  He has actually been awesome; just don't make eye contact with him.

     We play Russia in a day and a half at Spartak stadium in Moscow.  It will be another tough game and a home crowd advantage to boot.  I will keep you all posted after the game on my face book page.

Thanks for reading, off to have dinner! Mmmmmmmmmmmm! That's good hedgehog.

Yours in Strength,

Joe