Trentham travelled down to the South West for a long anticipated tour. A triangular fixture had been sorted for the Saturday against hosts North Bristol RUFC and a team from St Mary's and Thornbury combined. For Sunday a fixture against Whitehall RUFC was on the cards.

Everyone met at the hotel on the Saturday morning for the 15 minute journey to North Bristol arriving before the hosts. As the opposition started to arrive the boys and parents took several sharp intakes of breath at the size of them. The coaches did their best to play this down and getting the boys to focus on their own game.

It was decided that the three way would work as everyone playing each other for one half and them the same again for the second half. A draw was done and it emerged that Trentham were to sit the first one out. North Bristol were short a couple of players so borrowed two from St Mary's, the game got underway as a scrappy affair but St Mary's soon took the lead. That lead was extended within a couple of minutes with some powerful running from deep. North Bristol scored themselves but ended the half easily beaten.

Trentham were next to play North Bristol and right from the off the opposition were like a different team. They showed much more desire and aggression in the tackle and played some good rugby. Trentham scored two tries through Sullivan Nicely to end the half with a 14-0 win.

St Marys/Thornbury were up next and again they turned it on against the boys from up North. Big hits were raining in from both sides and when Fly Half Joel exposed his back on an inside pass to Twiggy, the opposition flanker hit him hard and he had to leave the field. Ben Gibson stepped in at fly half to replace Joel. The game was extremely nip and tuck until Sullivan again found some space to round the opposition and claim the try to give the visitors a 7-0 half win.

A torrential downpour then ensued sending all the times back to the changing room for a break.

After the break the opposition decided that they would play fun rugby in the second round of games and took to kicking the ball from anywhere and putting in crazy passes.

Trenthams remaining two halves were played somewhere between Barbarian rugby and less serious rugby with the referee and the coaches not sure which way things would go. Stern words from the referee regarding the safety of how the game was being played was administered but thankfully everyone came through relatively unscathed. Trentham edged the second half against North Bristol and thanks to a try stopping tackle by Tristian over our try line ran out 7-5 winners against St Marys/Thornbury. Sullivan was awarded Man of the Match.

Thanks to North Bristol for hosting us and giving us a good game and to St Marys/Thornbury for a great game played in a great spirit.

After the presentations everyone returned to the hotel where all the fathers and the coaches disappeared to the nearest pub to chew over the games and life in general whilst the women went to Dawn and Mandy's room for a champagne reception. The kids had the time to themselves and thankfully all survived and did not break anything.

Once the fathers had returned and the ladies had filled up on champagne the evening festivities began with a lovely meal in our own private function room followed by a great disco with dancing led by the great Mr Hall. Drinking and merriment went on late into the night and some very fragile looking adults arriving at breakfast.

Check out done the party faithful travelled the 10 minute journey to Whitehall RUFC for the 11.00 am kick off.

The boys looked pretty lethargic in the warm up, not surprising as many had been up until after midnight. The coaches did not look to fresh either with pain killers administered for sore heads.

The opposition looked even bigger than yesterday's and the boys were again talking themselves out of the game before they started.

The game kicked off and Whitehall were soon in the lead when their big blond winger set off down the park rounding everyone to score the first try. Trentham were quick to respond with a try from Ben Twigg converted by Joel. The game continued in this manner with the lead changing hands several times. Tristian bagged Trentham another after Whitehall had regained the lead but Whitehall grabbed a third try to give them a half time lead of 17-12.

The second half was all Trentham's and they soon regained the lead with a converted try after Tristian scored his second to lead 19-7. Further tries from Sullivan and a blistering solo try from man of the match James Nightingale secured the win 29-17.

Well done to all the boys and a big thank you to Whitehall for their hospitality. We would love to come back again or for any of the clubs to visit us up at Trentham.

Thank you to all the coaches, parents and siblings for making the tour a great success, and of course thank you to Dawn for the organisation.

Trentham RUFC

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