W INTER 2002
P AGE 2
A N A USSIE O DDESSEY So, three years, four fundraising events, five hundred raffle tickets, thousands of air miles and two dodgy Qantas in-flight dinners on from the last Glenstal Abbey Rugby Tour of Australia in ’99 and we were finally there – the great wide brown and mysterious land Down Under. What we were about to embark on was the fruit of years of hard training and hard work on the part of players and management (not to mention hard cash on the part of the parents!) and was to be, in the words of Tour manager and coach Br Denis, ‘the trip of a lifetime’. The Aussie odyssey began in Surfer’s Paradise, a concrete jungle skirted by golden beaches and gentle Pacific waters, halfway along the east coast of Australia. The squad stayed in Beachfront Apartments where, in a surprisingly trusting or else just plain naïve move by management, we were allotted an apartment (complete with soon-to-be-stocked fridges) for every four players. Beachfront was a stone’s throw from the beach and bungee-jump park across the road and a short walk from the town centre brimming with restaurants, pubs and clubs. Training began that day with a half hour run out to stretch the legs and get in the right frame of mind for the Gold Coast Rugby Carnival, starting on Monday 1st July in the nearby Southport School. Glenstal fielded two teams, a senior and development side. Both produced some genuinely stirring performances, which earned acclaim from many neutral onlookers. Wednesday the 3rd was especially memorable, with each side defeating respectively a highly prominent Australian or
New Zealand school with exceptional displays of skill, determination and team spirit. Tough going, with teams playing two forty minute matches in mid-day Southern Hemisphere heat. What would Roy Keane have made of those pitches - hard with very little grass, a primary cause of injuries! The Carnival closed on Friday 5th with Mark Coghlan and Ed Tynan selected as Tournament Barbarians for their exploits on the field throughout the week. On to Brisbane, via Wet ‘n’ Wild and Warner Brothers’ Movie World – a sort of WB version of Disneyland, where we posed for photographs with Wonder Woman and Batgirl! The Brisbane Sevens Tournament was a one day affair at a local club ground. We fielded three sides, under 16, Development, and Senior. Each played three group games. Considering this was the first time we had played sevens competitively, we did ourselves proud. The Seniors won their first two matches before being outclassed by the eventual winners of the tournament, while the Development and u-16 sides got great satisfaction from beating their English and Australian opposition. A good learning experience, and a heightened test of fitness and tactical awareness. After a final dinner out in Brissie, it was back to the hotel to rest our weary bones before a long day of travel, which Leo assured us would be ‘the worst day of the entire Tour’.
BY BARRY LYSAGHT
Leo doesn’t lie: Rise. 6.30am, lavish breakfast (eaten on the bus) of painau-chocolat Aussie style and a portion of pineapple juice that couldn’t drown a fly. “Cheer up!” cried the management “we’ve only seven and a half hours to go!” Mutiny was averted by a delicious lunch of salads and freshly barbecued steaks at Coolmore Stud. Back on the bus for the remainder of the journey, after management insisted we pick up ‘supplies’ in the famous Hunter Valley vineyards, we ended up in Port Macquarie where we stayed with our first billet host families from the 9th to the 11th of July. We played two matches, against neighbouring clubs ‘The Pirates’ and Kempse y, beating both convincingly. The Brushdance, aka the Irish Haka, was performed to slightly baffled but appreciative applause at the end of the matches. Thursday July 11th saw us continuing southwards to our second billeting families for our matches against the Central Coast Grammar School. Three seasons before, CCGS, on tour themselves, had visited us in Murroe where we beat them. Our history of never losing to CCGS was brought to bear in the pre-match teamtalks, and, while Denis fielded younger sides in both gamest, the Seniors won 20-5, while the Development XV finished 10-0, leaving our winning re-
cord intact. The following day was free and many of the Tour party were brought to the local reptile park by their billets where we got to view the notorious funnel web spider, birdeater tarantulas, dingoes, wombats, boa constrictors, and Tasmanian Devils up close and personal, not forgetting Eric the five metre crocodile at feeding time! It was a prime opportunity to pet free roaming kangaroos and capture the occasion on camera. A nice memory, I reckon, when you’re tucking into your medium rare kangaroo steak at the barbie afterwards! By Sunday the 14th July we had completed our last trip south, down to amazing Sydney, where the atmosphere still buzzes from having hosted the Olympics two summers before. We had an hour free to explore and see the sights before our ferry came in – some headed straight for the worldfamous Opera House while others went on a speed-dingy ride zipping around the harbour. Crossing by ferry to our billets at St Augustine’s school in Manly, our long journey was forgotten. As we passed the spectacular Harbour Bridge and Opera House, with Central Tower the centre piece of the skyline, the old excitement was rekindled. We stayed with billet families for three nights, sharing the homes of guys we were expected to go out and destroy the following day! The Development side staged a fantastic second half fight back in their game, going from trailing 0-17 at half time to come back and win 2117! The Seniors, consistent as ever, took their