Apr
15
Capturing Herts and Minds
By Sarah McIntosh
The Boroughmuir S1 RFC, U13’s, have been invited to participate in an International Rugby Tournament, on a scale rivaling the 6 Nations. The boys are counting down the days and training hard until their departure on Friday 3rd May 2013, on a coach down to Bishop’s Stortford, England.
The team coach, Andy Middlemiss, building on the positive experiences of previous trips said, “Tours are a super way of bonding the boys, which will be good for us, especially as we have a great mix of players from 8 different schools, represented in the squad.”
Planning for the trip began back in 2012 with almost military precision; after all, a trip involving 25 boys, three coaches (of the two-legged variety), five parent helpers plus a motley crew of parents and sibling supporters does not magically appear in the right place at the right time 370-odd miles away. A fair amount of fund raising has already been done, with big thanks going out to Scotland Gas Networks, Murrayfield Sports Bar, Mumbai Mansions Restaurant, Eikos Project Systems and the Boroughmuir Rugby Club.
The boys have also braved the cold and crowds to busk at the autumn Murrayfield Internationals, spent an afternoon bag packing at Sainsbury’s and had fun paint balling.
Saul, age 12 said the fundraising was “good, and we made a lot of money for the tour.” He also mentioned that he would be taking his bagpipes on tour to “strike the Scottish fear into the English and Welsh, Italians & French.”
The home team are organizing a social evening on the Saturday, with all the touring teams plus supporters attending; the boys will get the chance to socialise with the other teams and practice their language skills.
Sixteen teams will be coming from England, with a smaller contingent coming from France, Italy and Wales. It has brought out a sense of national pride within the team to be representing Scotland; this has made the boys work harder at their game and do their country proud.
The tour takes the boys the furthest away they’ve played, but coach Andy reckons the team usually peaks in performance around May, so the opposition, who are expected to be very tough, had better watch out.
