Tour to
Northern Ireland
On Friday 29th March 34 players and committee set off at 10.30am to
catch their flight on Ryanair, from Edinburgh to Dublin.
First to wear the tour coat (yellow raincoat) was coach Davie Blair:
he was late for the bus as usual.
The
flight took off on time and forty minutes later we were in Dublin
ready to collect our luggage. Everything had gone
smoothly, but some of the committee could not find their luggage and
were starting to panic when it mysteriously turned up.
Ginger Jamie was at work.
We were
met outside in the bus park by our driver for the weekend, Paddie,
who told us all about Dublin on our road to the Four Courts Hostel,
our digs for the weekend.
On
arriving at the hostel Colin Sutherland and Davie Blair announced
that all players were to assemble in the dining area in thirty
minutes for a light training session at Phoenix Park; this
went down like a ton of bricks. The rest of the party,
led by President Doug Charters, headed off to see the sights, but to
their dismay it was Easter Friday and all the bars were closed.
After
the training it was a free night and everybody headed to the
restaurants and then to bed, for it was an early kickoff the next
day.
On
Saturday morning everybody was up bright and early making their
breakfast, along with numerous others from Australia, Japan, Italy,
France etc. After breakfast we headed off to our game
with Leinster Development Under 18's; the game was arranged to
be played at Monkstown RFC at 11.30am. Paddie was confident he
knew where the ground was. On arriving at the rugby club
in Monkstown we were told that Blackrock RFC plays at Monkstown and
that Monkstown RFC plays at Blackrock: after all, we were in
Ireland! After numerous directions and phone calls we
arrived at the correct ground just before kickoff.
The
Leinster team were big and physical; they started the game
better. After ten minutes PSA came more into the game
with Steven Anderson scoring two tries, the first of which was a
superb individual try. From this point onwards the PSA
played some of their best rugby all season, scoring some fine tries
and ending up winners by 52 points to 17. Credit must be
given to coaches Colin Sutherland and Davie Blair for such a fine
performance. All 24 players took part in the game at
some time, with Steven Anderson being picked as man of the
match. Steven Hill and Hooker Lee Stewart also deserve
special mention for fine performances. After the match
we headed back to the hostel; the rest of the day was free
time.
On
Sunday morning we headed to the airport and off home, stopping off
at Ashkirk to give a few presentations for achievements during the
trip.
The
weekend was a great success with the players taking great credit for
their excellent behaviour. We look forward to our next
tour. |
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