SMUS Rugby

Sunday, March 21

Definitely a ‘mental health’ day, with most of the players, now with their host families at King’s Hospital School, enjoying their first lie in on tour.

Team selection for the final match is discussed at length, with Fraser McGee and Reed Plasterer set for 1st XV debuts at prop and scrum half respectively. The fitness/health of fullback Eric Beban (groin) and flankers Eali Hopper (shin) Joe Furness (flu) remain a concern. Otherwise, while Luke McLoskey (shoulder), Nathan Bosworth (ribs) and Alex Economou (hamstring) are out, the rest of the squad is available to play.

Monday, March 22

Once again, the players are in school early. King’s Hospital is situated on a sprawling south Dublin campus, and, not surprisingly for an institution founded in 1669, has a bit of history behind it!! It is enjoying something of a resurgence on the rugby front under head coach Matt Jarvis, with this year’s 1st XV reaching the round of 16 in the prestigious Leinster Schools Cup before bowing out to eventual winners Clongowes.

The SMUS party spends the morning at the Guinness factory, very much enjoying a 2 hour tour around a facility and company founded in 1759 and so this year celebrating its 250 year anniversary!! The top of the seven story building offers a stunning panoramic view of Dublin. The lower floor exhibits take visitors through the history of the company, the vision of its founder Arthur Guinness, how the beer is actually produced and provides finally a lesson on ‘how to pour the perfect pint!!’

The seven floors are in the shape of a massive beer glass – one, we are informed, which would require 14.3 million pints of Guinness to fill from bottom to top!!

Lunch complete, it is back to King’s Hospital for the final tour match. Without question, fatigue has set in to a degree and thoughts are turning to home, but equally there is a determination to finish with a victory.

As it turns out, while Ingemar de Wet is able to make his first start of the tour and Hopper and Furness recover sufficiently well, Beban is not good to go. This necessitates a revamping of the backline, with Charlie Southwell moving to fullback, while Colin Smith and Marc vander Wal patrol the wings. The experiment of playing Alex Harvey in the backrow continues.

In the opening half, SMUS plays with the benefit of a strong, diagonal wind. Putting the ball through the phases well and initially controlling territory, the team first goes up 3-0 courtesy of a Southwell penalty goal and then, in the 21st minute, 8-0 after a superb line break and 35m gallop from player of the tour Alex Austin.

Unfortunately, this advantage is not pressed home. Inconsistent work on restarts and not using the wind (when the best of course of action is just to smash the ball long down the park) leaves SMUS trapped in its own half and defending far longer than should have been necessary during the first 35 minutes. Then, with more points absolutely vital, an ill judged quick tap negates the chance for an easy penalty kick at goal before some white line fever in the final seconds allows King’s off the hook with SMUS looking at a promising overlap scoring chance.

While the wind drops to some degree after the break, it remains a factor, and the King’s halfbacks make sure the game is played in the SMUS quarter of the field. Despite some excellent defence, the hosts manage two tries, one of which is converted, for a 12-8 lead.

Yet, SMUS refuses to go quietly. Mike Fuailefau is nearly away after snaring a loose ball, Southwell produces his usual array of mazy runs, Hopper, Wonjin Kim and Joe Shan take the ball on strongly. Yet the team cannot improve on its 8 first half points. An otherwise excellent referee fails to spot a cynical obstruction on a chasing vander Wal, and should have penalized for offside after the home fullback knocks under pressure in the shadow of his own posts. These two easy penalty kicks would have taken the score back to 14-12 SMUS.

King’s are clinical on returning to the SMUS end of the field, playing the ball through multiple phases and winning two deserved penalties. Both of these, though no gimmes by any stretch of the imagination given the conditions, are slotted home, with the second taking King’s ahead by more than one score at 18-8.

One last SMUS charge ends just meters short of the line, with the final whistle denying the team even the satisfaction of a consolation tally. Nonetheless, over the course of 70 minutes, the result is a fair one.

Post game presentations complete, the entire team and staff move to the nearby Liffey Clarion hotel. Time for a last get together, reflections and thoughts before the 24 hour marathon return to Canada via Newark and Seattle. 

While the King’s Hospital match does represent a chance missed, there can be no denying that the entire squad has improved significantly in the past two weeks. While some annoying injuries blunt continuity of selection, others take the opportunity to shine, and, in the course of the upcoming domestic season, will provide critical depth.

Indeed, the overall development of the team will be immediately tested with The High School of Glasgow set to visit SMUS on April 6, while BC powerhouse Carson Graham will be in Victoria for a match on April 12.

Until then, adieu….

Thursday, March 18

730am departure from the High School of Glasgow. A most enjoyable Ceilidh the previous evening, complete with dancing, songs and bagpipes was a huge success and enjoyed by all. There are not really goodbyes to our friends at this fine school, just thanks until we meet again. This time the wait will be short, with HSOG arriving in Victoria April 4 as part of its own tour to foreign shores.

The SMUS tour group is now en route to to Northern Ireland. A two hour bus journey from Glasgow sees the team then board the Stranraer to Larne ferry, for a 1hour 45 minute crossing to Northern Ireland. A strong wind makes for a choppy crossing of the Irish Sea, even if most of the players, sprawled asleep in the comfortable state room chairs, seem oblivious. Perhaps the exertions of the Ceilidh took more out of them than imagined!!

Docking in Larne at Noon, the team drives through Belfast to its next stop, Methodist College, which doubles as Ulster’s and Ireland’s preeminent rugby school. That ‘Methedy’ dominates the local rugby landscape is an understatement, even if, on arrival, SMUS learns that the school is in something of a state of shock, having been upset in the Ulster Schools Cup semifinals a few days ago, despite being overwhelming favourites.

Methedy fields 22 teams from Form 2 to Upper 6th (Grade 8 to Grade 13). It is clear that SMUS will more than have its work cut out for it, even if the hosts plan to field what is euphemistically called a ‘Development XV’ for the match.

The Methedy Director of Rugby, Davey Wells, is a legend at the school, in Ulster and indeed throughout Ireland Schools Rugby. He and the school prove to be delightful and generous hosts, if this hospitality does not extend to the rugby pitch itself!!

SMUS uses another beautiful afternoon (the weather all tour has been absolutely oustanding!!) for a bus tour of Belfast, with the drive through Falls Road and the Shankill providing some graphic illustrations of the ‘Troubles’ which affected these areas from the late 1960s through to the Good Friday Peace Agreement of 1998. The downtown area features stunning architecture at every turn, while the Docks area is in the middle of a massive redevelopment aimed for April 2012 and the Centenary celebration of the building of HMS Titanic!!

Friday, March 19

Another absolutely glorious morning, and time for the team to bus north and visit Giant’s Causeway, one of three World Heritage Sites (along with the Great Barrier Reef and the Grand Canyon). The mythology behind the Causeway, the ordered rows of hexagonal stones and the simply breathtaking scenery all combine to make for a superb trip. Unfortunately, time constraints mean it is, too soon, necessary to return to Methedy for the third match of tour.

All available SMUS tourists will be in action today, but with fully five unavailable due to injury/illness, Methedy loan several of their players to bolster the 2nd XV ranks. Immediately, in this contest, the depth and talent available to the home team is evident. Without question, at least five and maybe more of the Methedy 4th XV (who provide the opposition) would easily make a top BC school 1st XV. Nonetheless, with prop Fraser McGee, and halfbacks Reed Plasterer and Taylor Bridge combining well, the makeshift SMUS team competes well for the entire match, even though the final score is 45-7. While escaping on defence on several occasions, SMUS could even have added to its solitary try but for the bounce of the ball.

At the 1st XV level, if it is possible for a team conceding eight tries and being beaten 48-0 to emerge with credit, then SMUS does so. The Methedy Development squad rates far better than a similar Blackrock College outfit that visited Victoria in 2006 for the SMUS Centenary, and actually includes six of its regular 1st team.

Still, for long periods of the match, SMUS competes well. Seniors Wonjin Kim, Joe Shan, Connor McKenzie and Mike Fuailefau lead magnificently from start to finish, with the latter in particular rock solid in attack and defence. Centre Jure Erlic and scrum half Marc vander Wal continue their fine play, while fly half Alex Harvey, forced to play in the back row because of injuries, makes a good fist of this new opportunity.

Others who make an impact are lock Alex Austin and flanker Joe Furness, while Logan McColl and Eric Beban will both be the better for having to perform under extreme physical pressure.

Indeed, though the game is long decided, SMUS comes close to scoring on three separate occasions in the final quarter of the match. Without question, despite the scoreline, the team, missing several front line players, has taken giant steps forward – the benefit of which may not be seen for sometime, but which will emerge without question.

Certainly, the coaching staff is extremely pleased with the commitment and courage of all 25 players who perform so well on the day.

Saturday, March 20

9am, and time to depart Methedy for Dublin. The College and its staff have been wonderful hosts, generous in the extreme and complimentary of the SMUS efforts the day before.

Best of all, with the exception of a bang on the wrist suffered by Erlic, all the players have come through the two games unscathed, which is a very positive turn of events given some of the freak bangs and knocks (thumb, shoulder, shin) which have sidelined some key performers.

On the way to Dublin, the team, at the invitation of Eliot Anderson’s close friend Chris Lonsdale, takes in a GAA (Gaelic Football) club match before alighting downtown in O’Connell Street. There, the group wiles away a few hours while waiting to move on to the famous Croke Park, GAA Headquarters but this afternoon the sight of the Ireland-Scotland 6 Nations match.

This is a wonderful occasion, from the drummers, the brass bands, to 81,000 passionate spectators and a thrilling match not decided, and in Scotland’s favour, until the final minute!! That the tour party has seen not one, but two matches in the Championship, is down to the tireless work of Eliot Anderson, who has organized an absolutely superb tour. If Tag Heuer, the watch company, is in need of a new spokesperson (and apparently this is the case!!), Anderson is their man – as this whole two week event has gone off like ‘a Swiss watch.’

The game over, the team reconvenes for the trip to King’s Hospital School in south Dublin, the site of the final tour match. Even if at times the level of play exhibited by Methodist College seemed from another planet, the clear gains made by the SMUS players will result in continued improvement and hopefully a win!!

After a Monday of recovery, which features some Rich Primrose on field work, a pool session and, later in the evening, a spirited bowling outing (with Joe Shan’s top score of 177 most impressive), the team looks forward to the second match of the tour against The High School of Glasgow. At stake is the Mike Walsh trophy, named after the venerable SMUS teacher and rugby coach (1968-1986).

A pregame practice, mostly to focus on lineout work and support play, precedes a bus trip away to the Antartex Wool Centre and then to Loch Lomond. This junket follows on visits from earlier days to Edinburgh Castle, the William Wallace Tower, the Stirling Bridge battlefield site, Stirling Castle itself and Bannockburn, where the Scots routed the English in 1314.

4pm and back to the High School of Glasgow to prepare for the match. Goven Sandhu is given his 1st XV debut at hooker, while Connor Mackenzie, making a gutsy recovery from a hard tackle against Haddington two days earlier, is able to take his place on the right wing.

The High School has enjoyed a fine season, and while not physically overpowering, possess any number of skilled, crafty operators. Still, without question, the SMUS players believe that, with set piece parity and good ball support, a win is possible.

The first twenty minutes of the match are very balanced; the hosts looking a bit more dangerous but SMUS keeping its defensive shape, led by flankers Luke McLoskey and Joe Furness. However, a chance to clear from a 5 meter scrum is not taken, and HSOG pounce on the extra possession to jump in front 7-0.

The SMUS response is immediate. Good lineout ball produces the platform for Mike Fuailefau to take the ball on in midfield. After a dynamic ruck, a popped ball to Shan sees him through the close defence, and his tidy pass allows Andy Erasmus to rumble over next to the posts. However, a careless missed conversion, followed by poor organization at the subsequent restart, allows HSOG to immediately regain momentum. Though a large overlap is then squandered, the HSOG fly half does drop a neat goal on the halftime whistle to take the score to 10-5.

However, hopes for a stirring second half SMUS performance do not materialize. The HSOG team is just that tiny bit sharper, and with SMUS insufficiently street wise at the breakdown, the hosts pull away to 17-5 and then 22-5.

The last chance of a SMUS comeback fades in the 65th minute when first a Fuailefau grubber and then a Jure Erlic chip kick bounce maddeningly clear of chasing players with the defence in disarray. In contrast, two minutes later, a HSOG box kick sits up invitingly for a fourth home score, while a last minute lineout drive and front peel is further salt in the wounds. 34-5 final!!

The loss is compounded further by a shoulder injury to McLoskey, who has been outstanding on the day. In support, scrum half Mark van der Wal also plays impressively.

Overall, the game, despite the scoreline, is an improvement on two days earlier, even if lack of urgency and power at the contact areas is again a concern. Hopefully, as was the case two years ago on the Australia tour, the players will learn quickly to adjust to tackle area situations in the hopes of better protecting and turning over possession. Players staying on their feet is one thing, but if ‘diving in’ is going to be allowed, then adapt and do likewise!!

After a splendid post match dinner in the sparkling Jimmie Ireland stand at Anniesland, the teams head off together for the evening. The coaches and hosts retire likewise to a suitable establishment, with a chance to watch the Chelsea-Inter Milan European Cup tie. Joining the group is Randall Philip, well known to past SMUS players and coaches, and the referee who took charge of three of the first four SMUS-HSOG matches (1986, 1990 and 1992).

Of course, for SMUS, the chance for redemption will come soon enough, with the HSOG set to visit Victoria on April 6 for a return encounter!!

Wednesday, March 17

The team is entered in the annual HSOG 7s Tournament, and springs a major surprise en route to topping its group and reaching the Cup semifinals. First up is a narrow 24-19 win over St. Aloysius College, with Erlic getting through a mountain of work in both attack and defence. Then comes an equally nervy 22-17 triumph over Jordanhill College, and, capped by a superb, last minute, full length of the field Colin Smith and Logan McColl combination, a 14-12 victory over Lomond College.

These three wins put the team into the semifinals, against equally unheralded St. Columbia’s College, who had advanced on points differential over the hosts in its pool. But one last piece of magic is not to be. Despite a Fuailefau 75 metre score with seconds left, SMUS cannot regather the ensuing kickoff, with the opposition scrumhalf booting the ball high into the stand to end the game.

Nonetheless, the team and all the players can take a bow for a fine afternoon’s work. Alex Harvey, Eali Hopper and Smith all took their chances, while McColl came on to perform lots of the necessary blue collar work. Several of Charlie Southwell’s mazy runs have the crowd on its feet, while Ryan Taylor and Anthony Sharma enter into the spirit of the day by turning out for an injury plagued HSOG 2nd 7!! Even Ian Hyde-Lay features, turning back the clock by refereeing several matches, and (mostly) emerging unscathed from the good natured heckling from the SMUS players!!

All in all, a very good afternoon, and one which has gone a long way to restoring energy to the tour party. Three tough matches remain (1st and 2nd XV vs Methodist College, Belfast and 1st XV vs King’s Hospital, Dublin), and a good number of the players are weary and a bit banged up, but today has been a definite tonic.

And now it is time for dinner, with a Scottish Ceilidh (dance) to follow. The SMUS boys will all be in kilts and looking to follow the lead of Eliot Anderson, the 2010 ‘Dashing White Sargeant.’

Monday, March 15

Talented young Canadian rugby players took advantage of the University of Stirling’s top sports facilities last week – then vowed to support the Scottish national team.

Thirty pupils from Saint Michaels University School in Victoria, British Columbia, dropped in at Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence during a three-week visit to the United Kingdom.

The teenagers attend one of Canada’s best rugby playing schools, their former pupils’ roster including Gareth Rees, Canada’s all-time leading points scorer. The tour group comprises several youth international players, in Scotland to compete against Haddington RFC and The High School of Glasgow.

Their visit also includes trips to two Six Nations matches, both involving Scotland. And choosing their allegiance wisely, the pupils cheered on Scotland against England at Murrayfield on Saturday and will once again back the Scots when they travel to Dublin for the final Six Nations match against Ireland.

Team Manager Ian Hyde-Lay said: “I was last in Scotland in 1992 and this is our first visit to Stirling, but it has been excellent. We visited the Wallace Monument then took advantage of the great facilities at the University to get in some training before the matches.”

Head Coach Eliot Anderson said: “We were supposed to stay in Haddington for the weekend before we played them, but they couldn’t accommodate us so we had to make alternative arrangements. The chance arose to come to Stirling and knowing it is a national centre for a number of sports, we thought why not!”

The team trained in the spring sunshine at the University’s Airthrey pitches, with the backdrop of the Wallace Monument. Their action packed trip takes them to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast and finishes with a match against the High School Dublin before returning home on 23 March.

Mike Fuailefau, 17, a Canadian Junior national player, said: “It’s been really great to come to Scotland and to train in Stirling. It’s nice to visit the country and take in some rugby matches, but it’s also good for the guys as our season is just about starting back home. The Scottish teams will give us a good level of competition and give us vital preparation for the season proper.”

Saturday, March 13

Another glorious morning in Stirling, as the team awakes to clear skies and sunshine. 11am training back at Stirling University, with an emphasis on set piece work. The players have been informed that all will play a part in the match tomorrow vs Haddington RFC U18s.

Unfortunately, in literally the final move of the team run, lock Ingemar de Wet, so central to the team’s lineout play, damages his thumb. This necessitates a rejig on the pack, and, crucially, a rejig of the lineout combinations.

After lunch, the team climbs on board the bus for the trip back to Edinburgh – to the famous Murrayfield Rugby stadium and to watch the Six Nations Calcutta Match between the ‘auld enemies’ Scotland and England. 67,000 are in attendance, and a spectacular pre game show, complete with pipe bands, a brass band, hundreds of Highland dancers, a stirring rendition of ‘Highland Cathedral’, and a jet screaming past just above roof level, has emotions at a fever pitch.

The game itself never reaches any great standard, as two miserly defences, some poor attacking options and an oddly hesitant South African referee make for a stop-start affair. But, with so much at stake, and never more than three points between the sides, the tension is palpable for the entire 80 minutes. In the end, the 15-15 draw is probably a fair result, even though Scotland perhaps were a trifle unlucky.

The SMUS crew, sitting low down behind one of the in goal areas, is in full voice all game. This enthusiastic support manages to attract the attention of the BBC camera crews and, as a result, the boys feature on the stadium big screens on several occasions.

Sunday, March 14

Game Day. The tour party departs the hostel in Stirling after two excellent days, and heads for Haddington, some 30 miles east of Edinburgh for the tour opener. SMUS has played here before, in 1990, when a Gordon Reilly try late in the contest secured a 16-12 win. The challenge this time will be considerable, given that the opposition are in the middle of a fine season and have reached the quarterfinals of the SRU U18 club competition.

As has been the case since arrival, the wind is blowing strongly, and mixed with the first rain on tour, makes for trying playing conditions. SMUS loses the toss, and is forced to play into the elements. After just a few minutes it is clear that Haddington is a very capable side, with a big front row, outstanding openside flanker and a bruising midfield.

The tone of the game is set at the 11 minute mark, when fullback Connor Mackenzie is poleaxed by a late and dangerous tackle. What is a borderline red card offence is not even penalized by the referee, and SMUS takes some time to regroup from the injury enforced change. A badly misfiring lineout further complicates matters, and three Haddington tries takes the score to 19-0 after only twenty minutes.

Slowly, SMUS comes back into the game, but struggles throughout to find any real rythym. The tackle area is a mess, with Haddington using its significant weight advantage to telling effect. Those leaving their mark include Zac Austin, later chosen player of the game, Eric Beban, who performs well at fullback, and centre Jure Erlic.

Down 29-0 halfway through the second half, SMUS begins to put more play together, with Erlic breaking the line to put Mike Fuailefau in for a first try, before Erlic himself completes a strong outing with his own tally. In reply, Haddington add two scores of their own, making the final 39-10.

A heavy defeat and 7-2 try count is certainly not the way the team had hoped to start the tour, but, as is always the case, there are positives to take away. After a difficult start, the players regroup and are much more competitive and composed over the final fourty minutes. Ball support and first up tackling improve as the game wears on, and, while the lineout is a total mess from start to finish, repetitions in practice will solidify this critical set piece area.

The post game festivities complete, the team heads on its way to Glasgow, and a reunion with The High School. This wonderful connection started in 1986, with the upcoming matches scheduled for March 16 (and then April 6 in Victoria when HSOG return on its own tour) marking the 14th and 15th times the schools will have played each other in the past twenty four years. Amazing.

We’ve spent the last couple of days in the quiet town of Stirling just outside of Edinburgh underneath beautiful sunny skies.  Two training sessions and a visit to the William Wallace Memorial have filled our days which where capped off with an amazing experience at the Scotland vs. England test match this afternoon.  The crowd was outstanding with lots of impromptu singing, boisterous cheering and capped off with a low-flying jet pass to start the game which ended in a 15-15 draw.

Everyone is in good health and spirits are high in anticipation our opening match tomorrow against Haddington.  From there it’s off the The High School of Glasgow where the boys will meet their first host families of the tour!

After nearly 26 hours in transit on 3 planes, 3 trains, 2 buses and a few escalators we have arrived safely in Edinburgh!  We were greeted at the hostel with a Scottish hot breakfast which was desperately needed by more than a few hungry travellers.  Then it was off to the Edinburgh Castle for the afternoon before dinner and checking for the night.

More will follow later today but we wanted to let everyone know we’re here and in one piece!

We’re off tomorrow bright and early with a 3:45AM meeting time at Crothall.  The boys will be dressed in school grey pants and the dark tour polo with the jacket over top so we’ll certainly be looking sharp!

Monday - All on the field.  Line-out forwards in proper shorts

Tuesday – Seniors on the field and juniors in the weightroom

Wednesday – All on the field with mouthguards

Thursday – Juniors in the weightroom