The Senior Boys rugby tour started on their way to Auckland, but shortly into the trip, Mr. Murdy realised that we were short one boy on the bus. After a quick U turn, we found Brendan waiting at the flag pole as if nothing was wrong! We then continued on our travel to New Zealand. A total of 27 hours later, we walked into the millennium training institute where we spent our first two days. The institute trains many Olympic and professional athletes in all different kinds of sport, including pole vault where Simon found his calling. Next, we drove to Takapuna Grammar School who would be our first opposition. We ended up winning that game 41-12. Sir Graham Henry joined the spectators, and gave both teams some in-depth, post- match analysis that proved very useful in the games to come. (For those of you who don’t know, Sir Graham Henry is the former World Cup winning All Blacks team's head coach.) We spent one night with hosts from Takapuna Grammar. Our next two nights were spent in Mercury Bay where we played our second game. After arriving at the school, we were greeted with a traditional welcome including a haka by their 1stXV. The match followed a day of snorkelling and swimming off the coast of the same beaches that Narnia was filmed. The match was very high paced, and Shawinigan came out on top 67-5. It was a fight, however, for many of our guys, including Callahan who went toe-to-toe with the goal post -- he lost. That night was spent relaxing with our hosts. The following day was a travel day during which we flew across the water to Australia.

The plane touched down in Brisbane, where the boys quickly gathered their belongings, and got on the coach to meet our hosts at Sunshine Coast Grammar School. We were amazed at how beautiful their campus was. We were greeted warmly by our hosts and spent the night with them. The next day was game day, but no trip is complete without a trip to the zoo! We spent the day at the Australian Zoo where Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter, was honoured and praised at every opportunity. Angelo saw some of the most gorgeous creatures of many shapes and sizes and managed to catch them on camera. We than got ready for the game where we battled hard, but just came short, falling to the Sunshine Coast boys 32- 24. Next stop was the Gold Coast, where we spent the day at the beach and Stewart discovered why you must swim between the flags on surfer beaches! That night, we watched the Queensland Reds face off against the Brumbies who took the win 29-0. The next day was game day where we went on to defeat the Somerset Saints 29 -12, that day was quoted by Matt as the hottest day of his life. We then travelled to Sydney by plane and were greeted by our hosts at Barker College. The next day we played the Sydney side, who gave us the hardest game of the tour, our boys fought hard and managed to get a win against an impressive side, taking the game 29 - 22.

– George B. and Cole M.

Photos by Stephen Lane