Canada tour photos:
Fort Hunt vs. Shelford
Fort Hunt vs. Rugby Ontario
Miscellaneous tour photos (13U players and Fort Hunt vs. Barr Haven)
Summary
Fort Hunt Rugby executed its first-ever tour, a five-day/four-night trip to Ottawa, Canada, 16-20 July. We took 21 16-U rugby players and 3 13-U water boys, and had an excellent rugby experience. We played in the Canadian National Capital Youth Rugby Festival, and went 2-3-0 for the weekend. We beat every club side that we played and learned a lot about rugby when we faced Canadian and English select sides. We played 240 minutes of hard rugby, and learned a lot. Our young men were extremely well behaved on and off the pitch, and were excellent ambassadors of our sport, our club, and our country.
Friday, 16 July
We met at 0600 and departed early for Canada. The 600-mile drive took about 11 ½ hours, and we were all in place at AlgonquinCollege in Ottawa by dinner time. We had a team dinner of pizza at the hotel, had a quick team meeting, and turned in early.
Saturday, 17 July
We got to sleep in late, and played in the midday. Our opening match was against Shelford, an all-star team on tour from England. Our game plan was to play a physical, American-football style game to counter what we expected to be superior skills and experience. Our boys played well and hard, and were taught an early lesson by a gracious team, losing 42-0.
Our second match of the day was against the Rugby Ontario U-16 team, that is, the all-star team for the entire province of Ontario (including the city of Toronto). They were a big, strong and highly skilled team, and our boys took it to them hard, again learning a lot in a small time, losing 35-0.
We went out for dinner at a local restaurant, and then headed downtown for dessert and a sunset walk on Parliament Hill and around Parliament House. The team mood was excellent after a tough day of rugby. Our players never got down on themselves throughout the day and were ready to take the pitch again the next day and face the challenges of intense, high-level rugby.
Sunday, 18 July
Our first match wasn’t until 2:00pm, so we slept in and rested up from Saturday’s hard work. Our three water boys, Max D, Patrick P and Erik R, got out to the field early and each of them ran in five separate early-morning 12-U matches. All three of them scored tries, and also scored a t-shirt from the French Canadian Saints club.
Our first match was against Highland, an Ontario club side. The match was highly physical, with a great deal of close-in contests in the rucks and mauls. Our boys scored first with a maul pushover try from Matt P—his first try—and then Highland leveled. Matt scored again to put the game away for our first win, 10-5.
It was great to see the boys put to use the lessons they learned from the day before, with increased focus on matching up on defense, good communication, and a great deal of mutual support.
Our second match of the day, and final match of the entire tournament was a match against the Eastern Ontario U-16 all-stars, a select side chosen from all of the best players at the tournament. We surprised the Canadians by scoring first with a try and conversion from Chris B, and the 7-0 score held through the first half. In the end the experience of the Canadians was too much, with the final score 19-7. This was the best-played match of the tournament, with our boys strong and cohesive, showing newly learned skills and confidence on both offense and defense.
We finished the day with Italian food at a local place, then back to the dorms and bed.
Monday, 19 July
The day started cold and rainy, which squelched the planned trip into Quebec to the water park. We opted instead for a local mall for souvenirs, then to the Best Buy to check out electronics and music. We then hit a local indoor glow-in-the-dark putt-putt course.
We kitted up for the evening match against our hosts, the Barr Haven Scots. We played on their beautiful local pitch, and opened the match in a driving rain. The rain only lasted a few minutes, and then the sun came out. Our boys were fully rested, and all of the weekend’s lessons were put to use, with a great deal of creative and cohesive play, with much better integration between the scrum and the backline. We scored two tries, and then the Scots leveled, for a 10-10 tie at the end of the second of three periods. About midway through the third period we took the lead and held it for the 15-10 win. Over the course of the match, Chris B scored two tries and Nick A notched another.
The Scots hosted us at their clubhouse for an excellent cookout, our players mingled freely with theirs, and gifts were handed across. This was a wonderful evening of social rugby to cap off our trip, with beautiful summer weather over a perfect rugby pitch to play on, an evenly matched team to pit ourselves against, and gracious hosts. It really doesn’t get better than that.
Tuesday, 20 July
We had an early wake-up, a quick meeting downstairs, and it was back onto the road for the 11 hours home, with everyone back by about 7:00pm.
Conclusion
This was a wonderfully planned and executed effort put on by Coach Dale Roach and his wife Barb, assisted greatly by Carolyn Walder. We had no failures, no emergencies, no major injuries, no problems whatsoever, and it all came in on-budget. This was a fantastic sporting and life experience for our young men, one they’ll remember their entire lives, and a great beginning to what we hope will be a long history of Fort Hunt Rugby tours.
The club leadership is immensely proud of our young men, their behavior, their heart and grit, their drive and determination, and we thank them for being Fort Hunt Rugby players. We also thank all of the parents—especially those parents who came along on the trip as drivers/chaperones—for allowing these young men to participate. Yes, there are more Fort Hunt Rugby tours coming in the future.
Coach Roach adds:
I want to thank all of our young men for making this tour a huge success. Your off-field maturity and on-field performance made all of us proud of our team. When we started this tour, I had three goals for our players:
- Grow and mature as young men
- Serve as ambassadors of our sport and our country
- Develop as rugby players and play with intensity
I am happy to say that each of you achieved and exceeded our goals and we did it all while having fun. I look forward to our Spring 2011 high school rugby season and working with everyone for years to come.
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