Rugby Tours UK - Specialist Past Rugby Tours

Tour report:-

St Austell Under 13's second annual tour saw a tough trip to London. Following a successful first tour 12 months earlier to the City of Bath, it was decided to try our hand against tougher opposition. London Cornish would seem the logical choice for a touring Cornish side but the Cornish exiles have no Junior section. Not to be deterred and keeping the Celtic connection alive, London's Scottish and Irish agreed to welcome our team. So with lots of optimism and the parent's clutching carpet-tiles (don't ask) it was up the A30 we travelled.



After an eventful journey, the team eventually arrive at the huge St Giles Hotel. As St Giles is by far the tallest building for many a mile, we are still perplexed as to how long we took to locate it. Tour Manager Andy Doyle and Sports Travel South West once again came up trumps with our location. Apart from staying in a great Hotel, the local amenities were many and varied. Bowling, Laser Quasar and a Cinema were all but on our doorstep along with several well known Fast food outlets.



Touring sides always expect a warm welcome from their hosts; we were not disappointed by the players and people we met at Scottish and Irish. Both Clubs are amazing hosts who made us all fell very welcome and whose hospitality was second to none.



The level of Rugby we encountered at London Scottish early on Saturday morning were very good. St Austell arrived with their excited players having learnt no lessons from the previous years tour, on average the boys had around 2 hours sleep each. The lethargy showed and the hosts scored 3 quick tries, Saints then began to wake up and the game quickly evened up. The eventual score between these two evenly matched sides was a narrow 24-19 win for London Scottish. The Under 13's game was followed by food and drink in the brilliantly presented club house and a second Xv match. A tour of the nearby England International Twickenham Stadium followed; which is very impressive and well worth a visit.



Sunday morning saw the Saints travel to the second part of the Celtic double header and were welcomed by London Irish. This match was a rude awakening for our lads. Never before have Saints under 13's faced a team of this speed, strength or quality. After 20 minutes the game was halted due to London Irish already having run in 9 unanswered tries. Following this The Irish under 13's second XV took to the field against St Austell; this match was much more hotly contested. An evenly balanced match which Saints won 12 - 7 was close to its conclusion when once more the game was halted prematurely, this time due to a suspected Broken Collar-bone for Saints Lock James Doyle (3 months earlier he broke the same bone). The after match hospitality of the hosts was once again excellent.



Saints then travelled to High Wycombe to take in Wasps hosting the West Country's Gloucester. James appeared half way through the match with a sling, x-ray's and confirmation of a new fracture. Hopefully his bad luck was mitigated somewhat by London Irish's kind Gift of a Replica club shirt and warm wishes for a speedy recovery.



All that remained was the long journey home. Overall the tour was a great success in terms of Rugby played and enjoyment had by both the players and the parents. The main topic of discussion on the homeward journey centred upon where we would go next year and how we could convince Andy to organise it all again.