Rugby,

A few weekends back we went to watch the Canada v USA Rugby World Cup Qualifier which for some reason was being held in Edmonton. The first match of the qualifier had been held down in South Carolina and the USA had beaten Canada by a few points, so it was important that Canada won this match by a few more points

It was such good fun. The weather was reasonable and a couple of thousand people turned out to support Canada (rugby isn't one of the leading sports out here), most swathed in red (except me!). there was a real carnival feeling.

The match didn't get off to the greatest of starts. As the two teams lined up to sing the national anthems, a big fanfarey piece of music started playing over the tanoy. I thought it was a special introduction to one of them, but after about 30 seconds people started looking puzzled. After 60 seconds the music stopped and a rather sheepish voice said 'Sorry folks, wrong CD'. However, the right CD obviously couldn't be produced, so after a while, the Canadians on one side got into a huddle and sang their anthem with the crowd near them, and the Americans on our side got in another huddle and sung their anthem with the crowd near them joining in.

The Canadians dominated the first half, especially after one of theose nasty Americans got sent off for punching somebody, and the score at half time was something like 23-0. The Americans fought back in the second half and the final score was 41-13. Victory - the Canadians are off to New Zealand next year.

To add meaning to the game, we got chatting to the couple sitting next to us who had come out from Vancouver Island to watch because their son was one of the Canadian players. And he scored a try so it was all the more exciting for that.