Australia Rugby Tour
March 21 - Tonight we had our end-of-tour awards. There were lot's of good laughs and thank yous given from both the coaches, and players as everyone shared in the evenings festivities. The highlight of the evening was when Mr. Williams thanked 1st XV captain Monty T. for his leadership, and surprised him with a rubber snake as his prize. Monty, being deathly scared of snakes, has never sprinted so fast in his life!
Award Winners:
2nd XV Top Forward - Zac E.
2nd XV Top Back - Danny H.
1st XV Top Forward - Dave M.
1st XV Top Back - Luis Z. B.
Man of the Tour - Andy B.
Player of the Tour - Conor M.
March 20 - The playing side of the tour is now officially over as we played Epping Boy's High School today. The 2nd XV played to a 22-22 draw, and the 1st XV lost in an exciting match 20-15. Epping have a strong rugby culture and history being the Sydney State Schools champions in five of the last six years.
The hosting was fantastic, and new relationship was born from this game as Epping will coming to Canada to be hosted by and play Shawnigan in the spring of 2012.
Tomorrow, the boys will do some final sightseeing and shopping before flying home on Wednesday. The boys and staff would like to thank those alumni and parents that came out to support at all of our games.
March 19 - A very hard fought battle today between the Shawnigan boys and Barker College. The 2nd XV lost 29-0, and the 1st XV played to 5 - 5 draw in a very physical battle. After the post match reception, the boys travelled into Sydney to watch the Super 15 match between the NSW Waratahs and the Cheetahs from South Africa. Tomorrow will be a relaxing day of recovery.
March 17 - The boys are now down in Sydney and are being hosted by Barker College. It is an amazing school with 30 rugby sides put out every Saturday from their senior school. We just spent the morning watching the NSW Waratahs of the Super 15 train at the Sydney Football Ground. The Waratah players came over to meet and sign autographs for our boys. The highlight was watching Barrick Barnes, also an Australian Wallaby player, work with our kicker, Conner M., for about twenty minutes.
The boys are in town eating lunch as I write this note, and will getting back together in about thirty minutes for our own training in preparation for game three of the tour versus Barker.
March 15 - The boys are having a great time down here in Australia. Our first stop was a beautiful surfing town called Mooloolaba. The boys were billeted there by the families from Matthew Flinders School. The staff and school should all be very proud of our boys, as there was nothing but praise for their manners and behaviour while visiting these families.
During this stop, many of the boys visited the beach to body surf while a few others were taken south to Brisbane to attend the Brisbane Broncos rugby league match. The rugby matches themselves were two very different games. The 2nd XV was far too strong for our hosts winning 53-5, and the 1st XV won in a much tighter battle 22-5.
Following the game and post match reception, we boarded the bus and headed south to Runnaway Bay on the Gold Coast. We are staying as a team in the Sports Centre and have been using this opportunity to work hard in a training camp environment. For example, one of our days included: weight training, on field training, and pool for recovery—and that was just the morning. We then spent the afternoon at a waterpark only to return and train again on the field in the early evening.
We just played our 2nd matches last night with similar results to the first round of games. The 2nd XV won easily 71-0, and the 1st XV won 33-14 in a hard match. The boys are finding the heat and humidity to be quite a challenge to overcome in these games. We are off to Surfers Paradise today, and then we fly down to Sydney tomorrow.
– Tim Murdy, Head of Rugby