Hero video
Haka by SBHS Touring Rugby team
 
Video by Shirley Boys' High School

Rugby team tours South America

Richard McLaren —

A combined U14 and U15 touring team recently completed a tour of Argentina and Uruguay

After more than a year of fundraising, the 2016 Tour to South America jetted away on the 23rd of September. Twenty nine players with seven parents offering great support headed off to Buenos Aires, Rosario, Santa Fe and Montevideo.

Club Atlético del Rosario (Rosario):  A city walk gave the boys the chance to relax and focus before the first game of the tour kicked off. An emotional haka set the boys up for a great performance, and though trailing heading into the final fifteen minutes of the game the boys dug deep to score two late tries and come away with the win 29-19.

Santa Fe Rugby Club (Santa Fe): Santa Fe were amazing hosts, and brought an extremely combative style of rugby. The boys were down on the scoreboard through the first 25 minutes, but when the forwards took our opposition on in the ruck and maul, our backs started getting go forward ball and were devastating running in space. SBHS winners 61-19

Hurling Club (Buenos Aires): The game against Hurling again saw points put on us early, with the Hurling team exerting huge pressure at set piece. As our boys gained in confidence and began making first up tackles we started putting Hurling down behind the advantage line. Less time on defence meant our runners could again exploit the gaps opening up and the scoreline began to expand. The final result was 48-19 to Shirley!

The All Blacks game was an amazing experience. Being the away team at such a loud venue really put us on the back foot, but the whole group loudly cheered every chance we got. The evening finished with another win for the day and the chance for the boys to perform a haka for Ryan Crotty. A fantastic moment for all involved.

Carrasco Polo Club (Montevideo): After a day to catch our breath in Uruguay we lined up against Carrasco Polo Club of Montevideo. On a beautiful field we met their continually strong attack with scrambling defence, and it seemed that nearly two weeks on tour was taking its toll on us. As the game went on we continued to hold them, and in each section of play we improved our continuity. Offloads started to hit support runners and the tries quickly added up. The final score was 45-0

Carrasco were also hosts to Tucuman Rugby Club and provided a fantastic after match function before we headed to our homes for an early night!

St John's School (Buenos Aires): This was the most demanding game of the tour. St John's were well drilled and featured a number of strong runners.

They scored two excellent tries in the first 25 minutes to take an imposing lead, through their ability to control the breakdown. Some strong runs and breaks from our inside backs saw the boys confidence rise and everyone really started to focus on the on-field roles.

As we headed into the closing minutes of the second spell, we began to really dominate scrum and ruck; and the increased possession paid off with a number of tries in succession.

St Johns never gave up and scored a final try to make the final score 45-24, and give the boys five wins from five games on tour.