We’re now back at the hotel after diner at a shopping center nearby. We went for McDonald’s, KFC++. The food at the hotel is not of the most enjoyable kind, I may say a bit more about that later.

The stadium was just next to an olympic swimming pool.Right after the last game, we treated ourselves with a 30min swim there. We were the only team there, surprisingly. For me who didn’t play, it was lovely, I can guess how great it felt for the players.

So, looking back at the first day of competition, I must say I am quite happy with what we achieved. We were ranked 11/12 this morning, started the tournament as a bottom seeded team in our pool. In other words, we were expected to struggle. Well, we did put up a good fight against the Netherlands, we won against Czech Republic, and were not far behind Switzerland. We scored tries in all three games, something we had not managed to do in Amsterdam.

We finished 3rd out of 4 in our pool. There were 3 pools. The first and second in each pools, in addition to the two best 3rd were going to the cup (top 8). The other four teams to the challenge (bottom 4). We were the second best 3rd, thanks to the victory against Czech Republic.

The atmosphere in the team is great. It’s not easy to play 3 games in a day, especially at that level, it’s tough physically and mentally. We had the ambition of competing, doing our best in all the games, which is a tough for the best players who don’t get breaks. It was a tough call, but it was worth it.

Tomorrow, we have the opportunity to keep climbing in the ranking. This is important both for the next tournament, in Hungary in two weeks, and for the next season.

One last things. Today was my birthday. I’m away from my family, it’s what we sign up for when working with the national team. But I had a great day, a day to remember! Looking forward to tomorrow.

We lost our last game of the day, 14-22, against Switzerland. The girls gave everything, and made a great comeback in the second half after a difficult start, thanks, among others, to our super captain Karoline with 2 super tries after breaking through the defense line. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.

However… due to complex tournament rules, we will compete for the top ranks tomorrow. It’s a success, well deserved.

Tries: Karoline (2)

Conversions: Ragnhild (2)

Starting team: Karoline, Ingrid, Tonje, Karin, Ragnhild, Kathrine, Ellen

All subs came in the second half.

We’re going for diner now, I’ll post some more pictures and info later.

We have wifi at the stadium, so we can give news 🙂 It’s slow though…

We played our first game against the Netherlands. We lost 39-5. We had a very bad start, unable to move forward ball in hands, and missing an unusually high number of tackles in the first half. The first half was probably our worst half this year.

After the break, things changed. We managed to increase continuity in our game, especially in tackle situations. It gave us the forward momentum we needed to score a first try. Unfortunately, we also did a few mistakes which gave opportunities to the Dutch players.

Try scored by Kari

Starting team: Karoline, Gina, Ingrid, Karin, Ragnhild, Kari and Tonje. All subs came in in the second half.

Now is a long lunch break, next game 13:51 local time (12:51 Norwegian time)

All the games are streamed.

Waiting for the bus to the stadium. Roaming is hugely expensive here in Ukraine, I may not be able to post news before late afternoon.

Light afternoon training session near the hotel, we played a few ball games, including a ‘walking touch’ – no tries were score, unsurprisingly. E & T joined the fun. Kari demonstrated her yoga skills by leading a yoga session. We finished with a visualization exercise.

The staff did an excellent job at planning the day, with all breaks at the right time to watch the world cup games. We’re now cheering for Iceland!

We took the jersey ceremony a bit earlier than usual, as the program was unclear for the afternoon. M & T had the honor of handing out jerseys to the players. It was the first cap for three players, Ine, Rebekka and Ellen. The most capped players in the team are Ingrid and Kari (5th cap this year).

We had a break, and met for long, relaxed lunch at the hotel.

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We had our main training session early this morning, from 08:00 (07:00 Norwegian time) to 09:20 in the stadium where we’ll play tomorrow. M and I woke up even earlier to get fruits and water from the nearby shop.

A long bus ride took us across the city, we learnt that Dnipro used to host the spacecraft factories of the soviet union. Sputnik was made just a block away from the stadium.

We’re quite happy that we had an early training, it’s going to be a hot day. We worked on our passes, defense and rucking. Not everything was perfect, but that’s usually the case on the day before the tournament.

Now is breakfast time! We’ll have a team meeting after, and a break until lunch.

Players and staff went for a light afternoon jog, along the beautiful Dnipro river. Dnipro is an industrial city, architecturally dominated by post-WWII sovietic style. The broad river adds a welcome element of charm. Jogging among locals taking their afternoon walk was nice, it feels like we share a bit of the city’s everyday life.

We had our diner at the hotel, eastern europe style. A light diner 😉

We met up after diner on the 7th floor for a team meeting. We enjoyed the sunset on the river and went through tomorrow’s program.

It’s been a long day, we all woke up early, had a long journey. It was good to arrive today to get time to acclimatize to Ukrainian temperatures. That will be a challenge on Saturday.