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.