Day two of the week in Jacksonville. Last night the Jamaican Rugby League team arrived. I had an unexpected yet welcome surprise, my old friend Dane Campbell is here, he is one of the assistant coaches and conditioners with the Jamaicans. After a tough year with Injury and surgery he has decided to treat himself with a trip and help the Jamaicans. Steve Mascord, Dane and I ended up in a great bar on the Neptune Beach foreshore talking about the international game and trying some of the local cuisine and beer. The Shrimp and Grit (despite its name) was a delicious meal.
However this morning a constant fear of mine came to fruition. My old Tennis injury cam back to bight me, I threw my back out and so am going to be suffering all week through lower back pain. Despite this I battles on. After breakfast with the Tomahawks and Jamaica (apparently they do not want a moniker for the Jamaican Team) it was off to field 2 at Hodges Stadium for training with the Jamaicans. Despite travelling for 12 hours and getting in late last night, the players looked fresh and were enthusiastic in their training.
It was another hot day at Jacksonville, so by midday everyone was back at the hotel for lunch and relaxing till the evenings training session. The We are Rugby Commentators also stopped by, well are staying at the hotel, I don’t think the owners quite know what has hit the place, wait till the Canadians get here tomorrow! Three Rugby League teams, referees and press all in the one place! With the heat though I went out to get some shorts, so I found a surf shop and while looking for a nice pair of shorts got chatting with the salesperson and guess what, they knew about the game and were going! They mentioned that there has been promotional stuff all over the place in newspapers and radio, so its great to see the positive promotion of the tournie.
Tomorrow we have the press conference at 12 pm, it was a smart move having the opening match on a Tuesday, the local NFL team the Jaguars have their day off, so the press and fans should come out. The match is at 6:30 pm. I will be filming and so over the next few weeks on RLIS TV I will have highlights of the games if you miss the We Are Rugby coverage.
Round 7 of the Elite 1 has seen Limoux break into the top 4 with a win over St Gaudens/Toulouse 54 to 8. Carpentras continues its winning ways with a close win over UTC. Suffered their second loss of the season against Avignion, going down 43-52, but still hold onto second spot. Carcassonne continues Montpellier’s difficult start to the season with an emphatic win 52-16. The Villeneuve-Lezignan game was postponed till further notice. The table at the moment stands:
| Team | P | W | D | L | B | PD | Pt | |
| 1 | Lezignan | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 182 | 18 |
| 2 | Pia | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 122 | 17 |
| 3 | Carpentras | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 58 | 16 |
| 4 | Limoux | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 47 | 14 |
| 5 | Carcassonne | 7 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 26 | 13 |
| 6 | Avignion | 7 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | -49 | 13 |
| 7 | Villeneuve | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | -29 | 12 |
| 8 | UTC | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | -26 | 11 |
| 9 | Montpellier | 7 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | -130 | 9 |
| 10 | St Gaudens/Toulouse | 7 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | -201 | 9 |
This week the Lebanese Bank of Beirut Championships schedule was released. The 7 same teams from last year are involved , with 16 rounds to cover the season. All teams will play each other home and away and the season begins this weekend, 20th November and will end in May next year. To see the full draw have a look at the Lebanese website or go onto the RLIS Lebanon section at http://www.rugbyleagueinternationalscores.com/index.php/results/lebanon/ .
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