Ireland Rugby Sports Tour

The senior squad assembled in Hereford on the Friday morning before half term to set off to Dublin on a short rugby tour involving 2 matches, a trip around Croke Park and to watch the World Cup Final. The sea was calm and the ferry journey passed without incident, we arrived in our hotel at 7-30pm on Friday night after touring around the streets of Dublin, our bus driver appeared to be suffering from  ‘loss of direction sickness’

The first game was played on Saturday morning against Catholic University School, they were a very well drilled team who are having an excellent season in Ireland, a Danny Barling interception try reduced the score to 14-7 but CUS eventually ran out winners 47-14.

The evening was all about the England v South Africa world cup final , all the boys were presented with their white England Polo’s and off we went to watch the game on a wide screen TV. The rest is history, SA, World Cup Winners 2007, we all went back to the hotel disappointed and discussing the ‘try’ that was not awarded.

The next day was a trip to Croke Park, the 4th largest sports stadium in Europe, our bus driver was still suffering from ‘loss of direction sickness’ but we eventually found the ground. Croke Park is a magnificent stadium, it holds 82000 people and has an incredible history attached to it, until recently it has only been used for Hurling and Gaelic football and it was a privilege to have had a comprehensive tour of the stadium. The rest of the day was spent in and around Dublin taking in the local attractions and sites.

The final game was on Monday lunchtime against the Kings Hospital School, an excellent game played hard but fair. HCS scored an early try through Dave Hobby and Matt Holt also crossed the line but Kings made changes at half time and were soon in the lead 15-12, they scored again with 10 minutes to go to make it 20-12 but HCS came back hard and Ed Oliver scored and converted a try to make it 20-19, 5 minutes of sustained pressure did not bring about the vital score and the final whistle condemned us to a 20-19 defeat.

The tour was a great success and thanks must go to Ed Doran, the travel  company, Ed Falshaw and John Jenkins for their input as staff and the boys who were a credit to HCS, as usual.