Diary: Steven Hoiles Writes about life in France and Game one of the world cup vs Japan.

Tour Blog Week 2:Our opening game vs Japan was a great start to our world cup campaign.In very hot conditions and after a slow start we ended up with a great win 91-3.Rocky Elsom scored 3 tries and had a blinder. He was carrying on in the dressing room, rein acting his line breaks, and talking to anyone who’d listen about how good he played and how he hasn’t scored a triple since his days at the famous Nudgee College as a school kid.Not much more besides Rocky was spoken about after the match, with our focus now on next week’s game vs. Wales at the impressive Millennium stadium. A crowd of 85000 people are expected. This will be our toughest pool game and every1 is very excited for next sat.

There were 2 significant moments for the Wallabies today. The 1st was the test Debut of Berrick Barnes.He was presented his Wallaby cap from our longest serving staff member John Muggleton after the game and preceded to shot gun a can of beer, which is a Tradition of the team. (No drinking problem in our team though)The whole team was thrilled for Barnsy and scoring 2 tries on Debut was very much deserved. He is now Wallaby Number 820In his short time in rugby he has quickly earn’t himself a reputation as a kid with huge amounts of energy and someone who has to be told regularly to get off the training field and save some energy.He’s like an 8 yr old who never stops running around chasing some kind of physical activity. He would have been a nightmare of a kid to control.

In some very sad news, Mark Gerrard’s world cup seems over almost before it started.
He came on as a late replacement with 15mins to go, caught a kick off and somehow twisted his knee and looks like he has snapped his medial ligament in his knee, which will rule him out for 3months.This is every player’s worst fear, to be ruled out of a World cup. What makes it harder is that his Wife, 2 young kids, parents, and his wife’s family are scheduled 2 fly out on Monday.I can’t imagine how bad he is feeling right now.

Off field its been pretty quiet leading up to the this game.The team had a few beers last Sunday night in Montpellier (our home away from home), I think it’s important we get out and about every now and then. As much as some people back home think we should all be tucked in bed by 9pm every night, getting out and relaxing away from the game is great for team bonding.My little mate Adam Freier has a great impersonation of a knee boarder and if we are lucky enough over the next month or so, we may even get some footage of his hilarious moves. As mentioned before, we now move our attention 2 Melennium Stadium which will be a huge occasion.

1 down 6 to go.