15 Jun 07

RLC Rugby Squad assembled at Deepcut prior to the off

16 Jun 07

Following a long day at airports and on coaches, we finally arrived at our first destination - Toronto.

We were pleased to find that our hotel was situated right in the middle of the city and as such was easily within walking distance of pubs and restaurants. As such the first night was spent getting a bite to eat and trying out a few of the local bars.

17 Jun 07

Our first full day in Canada was spent buying all the provisions we were not able to bring from the UK and finding local parks to train in etc. Our first training session took place in the afternoon in a local park inhabited by a wide selection of Toronto residents. The session was designed to get the travelling out of our legs but was rudely interrupted by one local who had a mixture of Terret's Syndrome and boyfriend trouble. Her antics were quite a sight, making training impossible, even big Smudge was silenced.

'Big Smudge' relishing his role as player/coach

18 Jun 07

Events were dominated by a training session at Fletchers Fields in Toronto. This is one of the homes of Rugby Canada and as such we were hoping to have all the equipment required for a good training session. This was not to be the case. All that was there was a number of rugby pitches and a scrum machine. No contact pads, suits etc.

Undaunted by the challenge, Adie Mycroft took a three hour training session in the mid day heat and managed to achieve all that he wanted. Following the training session it was into the ice bath…sorry, ice bin, to relax the muscles before getting back on the transport - a school bus, and heading back into Toronto.

That evening at the squad dinner, our team Capt Andy Geary, went through the first of the fines accrued to that point. I won't go into who was fined for what, but special mention must go to Ben Hankinson for an outstanding contribution to tour funds.

19 Jun 07

After a long and very slow two-hour drive through heavy traffic. We arrived at Markham club for our first game in Canada, unsure of the standard of rugby and refereeing we were about to meet.

We were focussed on working hard on our game and to adapt to what Markham did or didn’t do plus the referee. As the game developed, it was very noticeable that the RLC were a lot stronger in all areas than Markham; so much so that Markham did not contest at the breakdown, so areas that would normally result in a ruck were contact open play areas that the RLC found hard to adapt to and resulted in our 9 Taff Jones being placed under a lot of pressure. However, from a catch and drive line out the forwards started the scoring, with a long 20 metre maul for Andy Davie to score on the left side of the field. This was to be followed by the Team Capt Andy Geary scoring another try 5 minutes later this time on the right side which Toby Sheehan converted. The rest of the game was dominated by the backs scoring all the reminding tries, with Ratu and Taukie scoring one try each but the man of the match was Kim Vaudreu, who showed some quality foot work, vision and pace, scoring 3 tries leaving the final score 43 - 3.

20 Jun 07

Following the trials and tribulations of the previous evening, physio Elaine Kirton was kept fully employed. The Squad had an informal trg session at the Toronto University Gym where swimming, volleyball and weights were the order of the day.

Colin 'Guns' Sadler spent time making sure his physique was in good order before we all headed off to the Rogers stadium to watch Toronto play LA at baseball. Following a 'pose off' with the Blue Jays mascot, Colin's work earlier in the day paid dividends when he found himself on the big screen at the stadium displaying his guns.

The match was a drawn out affair, similar to rounders, but longer with Toronto winning 12 - 1. While all agreed that going to the match was an experience, I am not sure many were turned into avid baseball fans.

21 Jun 07

Brock RUFC v RLC RUFC

The second game of the tour took us further out into the countryside, to a small place called Brock in the back and beyond, we couldn't complete the journey by coach as the road just wasn't wide enough, so we had to walk the last half a mile down a steep windy lane. This bought us out to a meadow at the bottom of a valley, where an area had been cleared and a rugby pitch laid, with a large shack which was used as the club house and the showers were attached to a back wall with a fence making a little privacy whilst showering. The toilet facilities were another story, they consisted of a large hole in the ground with a small shed placed over the top of the "hole in the ground" but once the lads had laughed over the environment we were now in they then focused on the game ahead of us.

The game started with the Chairman of Brock refereeing as the official one hadn't arrived and didn't until twenty minutes into the game, he quickly changed and took over from there.

The RLC started in a focused manor adamant that they would improve on their previous performance and as a result of this the first try was scored after just four minutes by Taukie. The power and pace of the RLC was too much for Brock and the RLC got a little carried away in the first twenty minutes and conceded four penalties, which wasn't up to the standard we were hoping for. The second twenty minutes had a vast improvement with the side adapting to the referee, with Dan Phillips scoring the second try in the twenty second minute, which was converted by Toby. Within minutes Taukie scored again without conversion, followed four minutes later by another backs try from Chris Skelton, two minutes after this try Kim scored his first try of the day followed six minutes later with his second try making the half time score 32 - 0.

The second half started after a short brief from coach Adie Mycroft, where he stated they needed to improve our work at the break downs as they had been turned over five times and improve our depth as regardless of the score at half time we had more opportunities to score. Four minutes into the second half saw the next try scored by Ben KQ which was converted by Toby. The forwards worked hard putting some good phases together securing the ball, which saw Andy Davie score his first try, which was also converted by Toby, followed within minutes by Kim's third try and second hat trick of the tour, Kim also converted his own try. With ten minutes of play left Ben Hankinson who had replaced Loki as hooker scored his first try, followed shortly after by another front row try from Sean Collins who had replaced Jerry at prop. Brock were never a side to stop competing and caught the RLC cold in the last minute of the game to make their day by scoring in the corner making the final score 63 - 5.

After the RLC v Brock match

22 Jun 07

The day was spent on a six hour coach drive to our next destination - Ottawa. Fortunately, we did not have to do the journey in a school bus and instead went by luxury coach. On arrival at Ottawa, we had a quiet night out in the Ottawa market place in preparation for our next game the following day.

23 Jun 07

The squad had a free morning to explore Ottawa, before moving to Barrhaven for our third match of the tour. This was to be our only afternoon kick off and as such, we were grateful that the weather had cooled off slightly after the previous week's heat.

Following the match and inevitable barbeque, the committee presented the following awards:

Man of the match - Loki for all round awesome play
Mask of shame - Ben Hankinson for all round not so awesome play

Following the presentations, Barrhaven had arranged a pub crawl for us in the market area of Ottawa. In the rush to get changed before going out, the hotel lift was overloaded with players and refused to soldier between the 8th and 9th floors. The situation was only resolved by prying open the doors and climbing out. Following the lift excapade, I was pleased to find that the only casualty of the night was the Barrhaven Coach (a Welsh boy) who did a spectacular forward roll down the stairs in one of the bars.

26 Jun 07

On the move again; this time to Niagara. After a long trip round the great lakes, we finally got to Niagara in the late afternoon. After checking in, most headed off down town to see the delights of Niagara. Apart from the obvious, Niagara contains very little in the way of entertainment. Most would refer to it as 'Blackpool gone to seed', and if you enjoy over priced amusement arcades and junk food, Niagara is the place. With that in mind most of the squad went out for something to eat and a few drinks before going to bed relatively early after the exertions of the previous night.

27 Jun 07

Our last formal trg session of the tour took place at the Burlington Centaur's ground and was designed to get the boys heads back into gameplay prior to our final match the following day. The weather had heated up considerably and as such we only managed to train for 90 minutes before heading back to the hotel. The rest of the day was spent exploring Niagara and the associated falls.

28 Jun 07

Our final full day in Canada, saw the squad go down to the falls for the 'Maids of the Mist' boat tour which takes you into the heart of the falls. This was widely enjoyed, with the blue waterproof capes taking a starring role in many fancy dress boxes around the country.

Man of the match - Dan Phillips for an all round outstanding contribution.
Mask of shame - 'Togs' Togadau for coming on the tour as the bagman due to injury, claiming fitness and getting himself injured further in the first five minutes of the game and having to be substituted.

We also made tour awards following the game. These were as follows:

Tremendous thanks (and a cheap pint pot) were given to Elaine Kirton for her outstanding contribution to the tour. Taking her own leave to attend, she was available to all players whenever physio was required and was widely considered the busiest member of the touring party. She also coped extremely well as the only female tourist

Player of the tour - 'H' Hendy. His improvement throughout the tour summed up everything that is good about touring. Being a bit part player prior to the tour, he showed his metal in the front row and has pushed his way through sheer determination and hard work into the minds of the selectors for next season.

Man of the tour - Loki. Also nominated for the player of the tour award, Loki showed how an 'all round' rugby tourist should behave. His contribution on the pitch was outstanding as was his morale raising behaviour off the field. Always fully involving himself in all that was going on, he was the life and soul of any party with his stories that always seem to start 'In Fiji…'.

Burlington Centaurs RUFC V RLC RUFC The RLC were on the move again this time to Niagara, and our fourth and final opponents Burlington Centaurs. Once again the RLC were aiming to improve on the previous game and we were also informed that this was going to be our hardest game of the tour. Once again the RLC drew a crowd, with players, coaches and administrators from around Ottawa coming to watch. The RLC started strong showing the same power and pace but with a little more than the previous game, reducing the penalty count within the first twenty minutes down to two. Burlington defended well and it was sixteen minutes before the RLC scored their first points, through Charlie who also converted. Seven minutes of good phased play later the RLC scored again, this time Kim, with Charlie converting. From the restart the RLC had started to identify areas of weakness and the soft spots of the Burlington defence, which resulted again with Kim scoring within three minutes. Followed four minutes later by Taukie leaving a half time score at 29-0.

Man of the tour, Loki, on the charge against Burlington Centaurs

At half time Adie asked the lads to concentrate in the area of 50-50 passes as the lads were playing very quick phases, but were struggling to identify when the speed of play needed to be reduced to retain the ball and reduce errors, prior to re-launching another attack. The first scorer of the second half was the same as the first - Charlie who again went on to convert it. This was then followed nine minutes later by another good try from Ben KQ after seven phases of play. The RLC were working hard on their phases of play but couldn't believe their luck when Andy Davie scored from a scrum set piece play in the middle of the field in the second phase, which was twenty metres out, Charlie converted this try. A minute later saw Seru score in broken play after some excellent foot work and support play, Charlie finished it off with a further two points. In the seventy-fourth minute Toki scored again after some good phased play and vision. Charlie added yet a further two points. Shortly after this the referee ended the game a few minutes early. Leaving the final score 57-0.

RLC RUFC at the Niagara Falls

29/30 Jun 07