Junior Rugby in Wales and Ireland.
From March 12th to March 24th, the junior rugby teams toured around Wales and Ireland. Rugby Tour is a great way to for a team to improve, but more importantly it is a great way to make new friends.
The boys toured four schools on the trip. The schools were Ysgol Glantaf in Cardiff, Ysgol Ystalyfera in Swansea, Bandon Grammar School in Cork and St. Gerard’s in Greater Dublin. The boys got to directly experience the different cultures as they were billeted by students from the schools.
The Juniors were playing against schools at a level higher than they are used to; however, on the plus side, the boys got to experience some “real rugby” that they rarely experience in Vancouver. In many of the games the juniors would get blown out, but they had resilience. The boys played their hardest no matter what the score is. As Mr. Jamieson said, “We don’t go on tour so we can just have a good time and win every game. We go to learn more about the game and improve as a team.” The teams improvement throughout the tournament was astonishing. The grade ten’s have improved so much since the start of the tour and if they keep it up, the sky will be unlimited during their season back in Vancouver.
The grade 10 team had a record of 1-1-2 on tour and the grade 9 team had a record of 0-0-4. The results do not represent how the teams played. The grade 9 and 10’s played with lots of heart, grit, and resilience.
Besides playing the matches, the boys got to visit some memorable places. In Cardiff, all of the boys were fortunate enough to go experience a rugby six nations match featuring the Welsh Nationals and the Irish Nationals at Millennium Stadium. Another iconic place the boys got to experience was, Big Pit, in the Swansea Valley. Big Pit was one of the many coal mines that dominated the welsh economy during the 1900’s. The last highlight from the tour was when the boys got to go on a stadium tour at Croke Park. Croke Park is a stadium in Dublin that holds 82,300 people. The two main sports played at Croke Park is, Hurley and Gaelic football. All of the boys got the chance to run out onto the pitch.
The Junior boys had a phenomenal spring break exploring new horizons. It was an experince the boys will never forget. Without the coaches Mr. Jamieson, Mr. Hillis, Mr. Yen, Mr. Hayduk and Mr. James none of this would have happened for the boys. Arthur Leung, in grade nine, told the Creed, “Without the coaches organization none of us would of got to have this memorable experience. They did all the dirty work while we had all the fun. Thank you coaches!”
Cameron Burian is a current grade 11 student, at St. George's school, who is actively involved in the athletics program. Cameron plays soccer, basketball,...
