"Postcards from the Cape"
ARU South African Tour 2005

Wed 23rd Mar - Mark Lee and Bokka Vilgeon

Wednesday morning began with the knowledge that this was to be our last rugby training session of the tour. With this in mind the squad also knew that when Andy Hickling described the session as a 40 minute team run through, we should reset our watches and start taking spread bets as to it real duration! The 1 hour 20 minute team run through had all the highs and lows of a full game with several members of the "opposition" exploiting the lack of a referee and tough judges! Having completed the habitual Gary Rodderick warm down, the squad wearily climbed on the coach content that we had covered all angles of our improving game plan.

Having rested and watered, the squad gathered with increasing trepidation for the long awaited "mind games" session. Tales abound from last year's meeting with Cape Town's version of Steve Irwin and his freshly caught bags of killer snakes. Peter Duncan's experience in Flash Gordon was nothing compared to what the old heads had suffered last year; and when Andy Hickling mentioned long socks, swimming trunks and trainers, shark diving, crocidile wrestling and pig hunting all became realistic possibilities! The mind games continues as we sat on the coach for a "2 hour journey" with grown men now cowering in their seats. Imagine the sigh of relief when we pulled into Camps Bay for 4 hour's of Beach Volleyball and swimming, the management bought the ice creams and left us to reflect on whether the fear of the unknown was worth a choc-ice!

Refreshed from a pounding from the Atlantic Ocean the British Army Squad retired to the Presidents Hotel to prepare for the last game of the South African tour and apply liberal amounts of after-sun.

Mon 21st Mar - Ed Smith and Bruno Green

Greetings from sunny Cape Town, the boys are all in fine fettle after two Hickling style-training sessions. The first being a particularly easy affair including tackle bags bungies and sprinting. Mr Hickling’s watch has once again proved to be as reliable as most PTI'S! one day we will finish a session on time and we can get a little bit of sun. As the dust settled on a World Cup victory for Fiji in the sevens. A small contingent of the squad were a little heavy headed at reveille...which came roughly an hour after the celebrations had finished. Still congratulations to all the Fijian's and in particular Pte Apolosi Satala who will be rejoining the squad with a World Cup winners medal.

The afternoon session was an uncomplicated affair made more complicated by the fact that one of the centres had been sidelined with a broken heart! The squad noticed his absence, as he is always a "model" trainer.

The training, team cohesion and spirit have improved immeasurably due to relative isolation provided by training camps such as these. The individual and team product is becoming clearer, as we tick off aggressive training objectives set out at the start of the tour.

The tortures, which the squad are enduring during the training camp, are softened by the regular recovery sessions in the hotel pool. It is said that plunging your body into ice cold water is good for you...we are still very sceptical.

Goodnight and God bless from all of the squad.

Fri 18th Mar- Jim Farndon and Rob Smart

Today saw the arrival of prop Steve Trethewey who has now taken over the mantle of whitest man on tour. Steve made it to the Tech Gardens Rugby Ground for the Team Run within an hour of his flight landing - a great effort but a fine for being late on tour is to be ensued of course. The team for the Tygerberg game on Saturday was announced yesterday and the team run went well. The unselected members of the squad participated in some gentle fitness involving 25m sprints, about 50 repetitions to be precise!!

The World Cup Sevens began early this morning - at 2.00 am SA time, which meant that much of the squad was awake to see the first scheduled games. The Fijian contingent was in full support of Apolisi who played in all three of Fiji's group games. Mark Lee performed with distinction as Scotland cruised to victory in all 3 of their games. The Slade Jones brothers will be quick to fine Mark on his return to SA due to the new style of Scottish try celebration that would look more at home in the blue oyster bar than a rugby field. Congratulations to them both from the Army quad and all the best for tomorrows games. Boka has not had such a happy day following SA's loss to Tunisia in their first game. Cheer up Boka, they should do better against Chinese Taipea tomorrow!

During the afternoon, the split to attend various activities such as Table Top Mountain, golf and shopping. The day ended with a high carb meal at the hotel in preparation for tomorrow's game.

Thr 17th Mar - Gareth & Daryl Slade-jones

Another day another dollar... It was the normal rise of 0700hrs and breakfast at 0800hrs. Breakfast is mine and my brother's favourite meal 'cos its the only one without CHICKEN!! This morning was to be training which kept us off our legs so Andy H booked us in for an hours spinning session down to the gym ('spinning' involves cycling - so not sure where Andy went to school). We were all waiting for our normal instructor, the fellas who were at the back last time were now in the front row eager for a look, but out came Quadzilla and put the boys through their paces!!

After the spinning the boys were split in to 3 groups for a fitness test on the rowing machines. We are still not sure if it was bad instructions from Gary R or poor baby-sitting from Andy H but it lead to Gary R throwing his teddy and marching the squad back down stairs for yet another brief. after the brief every thing went as planned and every one completed the test. Before departing the gym 2 of our 3 hookers dropped off their breakfast and returned to the hotel with empty stomachs (more room for the chicken).

In the afternoon we split, fowards with Mr Hickling and the backs with Andy Sangar. The backs didn't perform to sharply this was due to Andy S confusing many of the players by using big words and making us play across the field, this lead to alot of us not knowing what was going on. Can't comment on the forwards as they trained in a different place, but when the backs returned to the hotel the forwards were back had their ice baths and many were chilling by the pool with their lattes, enough said there the better!!

A special thanks from me and my brother goes to Chalky, this must have been the easiest duty boys day except for the day Andy S and Gary R "forgot" they were on and did nothing. I think there is method in Chalky's madness because me and Daryl are the fines masters so now I guess we owe the big fella one, smart thing butt!!!!

Wed 16th Mar - Lee Soper and Ledua Jope

Hello everyone Soaps & Jope here to tell you people what we have been up to today. It started with getting up earlier than everyone else because we were on duty, which meant helping Chalky with the kit for training.

Once at the ground we started with the warm up with Gary away from Andy in which some of us players had a sweepstake on how long the session would last. Well after a long and intense workout on defence, rucking and patterns at the end JB won the sweepstake with a time of 1 hour & 45 minutes.

But we still had to wait for Budge to complete his fat club session, this was his punishment for not paying his fine for being late on tour!

After our usual dips in the ice tanks we all had lunch and then went on the coach for a trip down to the Langa village, which is one of the townships in Cape Town. It was a very interesting but humbling experience seeing how their country’s past has affected them.

When we got back sorted out our laundry, had our evening meal and now writing up the diary.

Thank you for reading our diary of the day, see you soon Soaps and Jope.

Tues 15th Mar - Andy Dawling and Denny Deleaitamana

Jon Matthews has left the training camp and is now back in the UK on work commitments. He has been replaced by Chris Budgin.

Today was the hottest day of the tour so far, 37 degrees. The heat and the fact we trained for 4hrs, split into 2 sessions, had Budgie commenting on more than 1 occasion that this wasn't the way the "Brumbies" would do things.

Gary Rodrick got a little confused in the warm up over which body part was which and later he struggled to open his water bottle. Never mind Gary, it was a hot day.

Andy H encouraged the troops in his own indomitable style throughout the session, i.e. lots of ranting and raving. It had the desired effect and we were all working well by the end of the session.

After lunch the forwards packed down against the oldest and longest scrummage machine in the world. Chalkie had a bit of a death wish and was trying to lie down under the machine so he could video the forwards for his own personal video collection. Lineouts were the next form of torture followed by a team run (the lineouts weren't our best) . Training wise, it was a very hard day, but as our saying goes "it's in the bank".

Mon 14th Mar - Gary Stocks and Chalky Meek (The Management)

Today has proved to be a hot but still day here in Cape Town, this had a slight hampering effect of our planned activity for today but never the less felt the experience was worth the wait. A day's sailing on board the Spirit of Victoria, a 58 foot ship designed for charters of up to 45 people, we set sail under engine power which was soon replaced by sail.

The next few hours were spent cruising the coast of Cape Town tacking, turning and other nautical manoeuvres that we didn't understand. However, we managed to complete them under the successful command of our 3 budding 'skippers'; Hickling, Sanger and DamuDamu.

After lunch was served we dropped anchor for anyone to have a swim, this turned into the bravado diving competition and the fastest ever man back on a ship (Lee Soper falling for the old shark in the water trick). Egos replenished we departed for port and returned to the hotel, where there was time for a short swim before a late afternoon gym session and an early evening team meeting and video debrief of last Saturday's game against Wellington.

Sun 11th Mar - Gareth Thomas and Andy Travis (The Physio team)

Today, being Sunday, was a day of rest and recuperation following our visit to Wellington in the heart off the agricultural "Boland". This was played in the heat of the day and at altitude. We have been fortunate to pick up only minor bumps and bruises after a very physical encounter.

The players and management bomb burst to a variety of activities including diving with great white sharks, golf, safari and visiting Robben Island, (the place of incarceration of Nelson Mandela).

We have bid farewell to two members of the squad. Lt Mark Lee who has joined the Scotland 7's team in Hong Kong for the World Cup and Capt Johnny Matthews who has left us to commence pre-deployment training. We look forward to greeting L/Cpl Chris Budgen and Cpl Steve Trethewey and eagerly anticipate their reaction to being introduced to the Hickling "power-bag" sessions.

Morale remains high and despite an intensely physical week the boys are still laughing and joking. Today two team members celebrated their birthday - Gareth "The Silver Fox" Thomas and Andrew "Smudger" Smith. A glass was raised to them both.

Sat 12th Mar - Rory Thompson and Damu

Another early start for those not named in the 22 for today’s game. Gary Roderick had another cheeky little fitness session planned.

The whole squad left the hotel at 1000am for the journey up to the Boland district to play against Wellington RFC. The bus arrived at 1100, which gave us plenty of time, as the kick off wasn’t due till 1300pm.

With the warm-up going well the boys started the game with a BANG scored in the first 5 mins.

The boys played well all game especially considering the immense heat and when the final whistle blew the army were victors with a score of 39 - 34.

After the game the bus headed for a local seafood restaurant where all the boys indulged in traditional fish and chips, all apart from Griff that is: in true front row style he had a massive bowl of chips.

The whole squad then headed to the sports bar at the waterfront to watch the England vs Italy game. From here the boys and management sampled the nightlife of Cape Town.

Overall a good day and a well deserved win!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

BYE FOR NOW

Fri 11th Mar - Charlie and Ben

Today has been a fairly chilled day. We started in the morning with a team run at the impressively located Technikon rugby club ground. The forwards were fortunate to make this session as they had been attacked the previous day by a wasp which must have been at least a metre long. Fortunately the airborne warrior, Lee Soper was on hand to deal with the situation and no casualties were incurred.

The session went really well, until Gary 'the enemy' Roderick decided it would be fun to make the dirt trackers do 25 100 metre sprints (thank you very much Gary).

At long last the afternoon saw some time for a little relaxation when we were were able to swim, shop and generally chill out, it has been a long hard week and we are looking forward to the game tomorrow which will certainly be easier than the training.

Till next time it's goodbye from him and goodbye from me

Thu 10th Mar - Tom Hughes, Royal Engineers

Today saw the squads first organised gym session: A hour long spin session (just half an hour was it Gary?) under the expert guidance of the inspiration in lycra that was our instructor. Credit to the management for their participation, special mention to Chalky "I can't move my legs" Meek for creating his own lake on the floor underneath his bike. This was followed by a weights session for the forwards (under weights gurus C Bentley, A Smith, A Dawling and B Hughes) and some savage rowing sprints for the backs.

Afternoon training saw the forwards and backs in different venues to work on their respective games. However we were all back as one big happy family in the hotel afterwards, to jump into the ice baths that have become such a well loved and cherished part of our daily routine (ahem), despite the bemused looks from the other guests in the hotel.

The evening team meeting rounded off a tiring but quality day, and we even got to dinner on time.........

Wed 9th Mar - Garry Roderick and Andy Sanger

Post match recovery followed the usual pattern, tired and aching bodies dragging themselves out of bed for an early start. Several noticeable absentees were apparent as the majority of the squad walked the 15 minute journey to the public swimming pool by the sea. Absentees were gently reminded of their post match recovery commitment by the comedy coaching duo of Andy and Andy (Hickling and Sanger) who after building up a head of steam rampaged through the rooms of the nameless offenders to show them the errors of their ways. Needless to say after their slow start they almost arrived at the pool before the majority of the squad.

Post match recovery activities went down well by all, who despite the cold water and last night's defeat were in good spirits.

Whilst the players were recovering, the dungeon, as the squad briefing room is known, was occupied for the full duration of the morning by the comedy coaching duo, who was dissecting the 46 minutes of video footage with microscopic detail. Andy Sanger was at one point begged for a 2 minute toilet break. "No time for leisure activities" came the answer as they pressed on until 1230.

Lunch was taken followed by a short coach journey to a new training location. A one and a quarter hour session turned into a two hour high quality, session that continued to develop skills and technical ability that was executed by the players with little signs of fatigue from last nights endeavour.

Despite last nights defeat the spirit and camaraderie remains high and the player's fitness, attitude and professionalism continue to be a credit to the British Army in these foreign shores. We now look forward to Saturday's game with confidence that last nights defeat can be reversed.

Tue 8th Mar - Darrell Ball, Royal Engineers

Game day and the morning began with an early start for those not selected in the squad for the night game. I bet they wish they were involved as the "EVIL ENEMY" Gary Roderick, had set up a cheeky little circuit on the sea front.

The rest of the morning involved the boys going on a compulsory trip to the Waterfront to do a little shopping. Ben Hughes had the "buy of the day" with a nice skimpy green number, apparently he is called Beth at the weekends!

We left for the game at around 4 o'clock in the soaring heat, 40 minutes later we arrived at the ground. We were greeted with warmth from the team we were about to play, in one of the best clubhouses I have been to.

We played pretty good in the game but unfortunately we lost to a very good side, I myself was videoing the game. I was stood on a mini-bus to get a good view, however I nearly fell off a few times, I should of been given danger money!

We stayed for a short time after the game then headed home for some quality recovery time, team spirit is good and we look forward to the rest of the tour.

Sgt Andrew Smith's birthday on Sunday, we have something nice planned for his 50th, still in good shape though! Bye for now and see you soon!

Mon 7th Mar - Lt L Griffiths RA

Well here we are with another post card from paradise (or Hell the jury's still out!) today was dominated by a "a slightly longer" morning session in lieu of an afternoon workout, the small matter of that session being over 3 hours being neither here nor there!

The general consensus from the lads was that getting 20 KG bags chucked at your chest may simulate a tackle to an excellent degree but would also require a new set of ribs every other day. However it's not all doom and gloom as much was achieved today and the drills are becoming ever slicker. (I even nearly know all the calls in the lineouts, no small miracle in itself.)

The squad was also announced today for our first match tomorrow with the emphasis on the players to earn their positions for the capped games, the competition is heating up and the senior players are fighting hard against the new blood to stay on top, how it turns out only time and the management will tell.

On the lighter side of life there was time to relax and heal this afternoon, it was noted that Ed and Frank were aiming to get body beautiful on the sun beds (bloody Jessie's) while others chose to get more sleep in their rooms (typical donkeys) and the management went for a romantic meal. Wish you were here (with a new ribcage!)

Sun 6th Mar - Jon Matthews, 1RWF

Sunday saw the first full days training on an overcast and misty day, which was a welcome break from the relentless heat of the previous day for the players, if not the coaching team!

The morning training session was due to be a sprint session for the backs and power session for the forwards, however Chalky Meek, who had flown out a day earlier than the rest of the squad, had decided it would be a great idea to ditch the inners of the power bags and replace them with sand - Andy Hickling disagreed with his upgrade, however Chalky managed to make himself scarce for the rest of the day in order to avoid Andy's wrath. Without the power bags, a hastily put together power session was put together which was much more akin to the Highland Games, than a rugby session.

The afternoon saw the second session of the day during which the forwards were put through their paces on a scrummage machine that probably saw action back in the days of William Webb Ellis, and which last year, was somebody's house.

The end of the session heralded the arrival of the first Celebrity Fat Club meeting, who's numbers included such notorious players as Cpl 'Parky' Parkinson, Cpl 'JB' Beart, Cpl Rob Smart and John Tiko. Good form was shown throughout the extra curricula activity, especially by JB who was determined to show all his sprinting prowess. And so another day of training drew to a close.

Sat 5th Mar - John Beart Royal Signals

Arrived in Cape Town and greeted by high 80's temperature, big difference to the -3 back home...nice. Then realising that within a few hours we will be having a full on fitness session, it suddenly seemed not so good.

Known as one of the big team snorers I was luckily put with someone of the same calibre of snoring, apt Johnny Matthews.

Fitness was really hard, but not only the heat but the fact that Andy Hickling was shouting out that any one who was not performing would be in the fat club, I think he's been watching celebrity fit club. Well with the session at an end.... and me in the fat club, it was off to get some scoff and attend the team lecture. Day one over. 20 days left.