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SUB-18 DUBLIN TOUR

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avillez pereira dons the dreaded nightwear avillez pereira dons the dreaded nightwear

Tour report and images here.

The sub-18 tour to Dublin was the first St. Julian's Rugby Club tour to a home union country and was a hugely enjoyable experience.

The main business was the keenly contested game against Gonzaga College's Colts side on the Saturday morning, which was a classic Irish game of three halves. Away to a flyer in the first 20, helped by a fine long-range weaving run from Bernardo, they lost their way in the middle 20 before fighting back strongly but falling just short in a narrow 27-29 defeat. The boys then consoled themselves with some traditional Irish pizza before settling down to watch some excellent club Rugby at Old Belvedere's.

Later that evening the tour squad made their way to the iconic Croke Park to see some Gaelic Football and Hurling, throwing their idiosyncratic support behind "the Dubs". A taste of Dublin nightlife was then savoured before the comfort of the luxurious Citi Backpackers hostel was sought in the wee small hours. 

Sunglasses had not been specified as a required tour item, but proved to be in demand again as the boys emerged blinking from their full Irish breakfast into another glorious spring day (the forecast 18 degrees described as "an absolute scorcher" by one of our enthusiastic taxi drivers). Bizarrely, only André Gomes had shown any foresight, if not taste, in the eye-wear department.

The squad then made the short journey out to the western suburb of Castleknock to watch Ireland sub-18s put 30 points on their Scottish counterparts. Strangely, Luso-Irishman Zé Abrantes was not on tour as he was with the national squad preparing to face precisely this daunting opposition the following weekend in the European Sub-18 Championships. 

After a pub lunch, the boys, disappointingly, chose en masse the Gunness Brewery over the Kilmainham Jail tour, before congregating in the Temple Bar for the end of tour dinner, which was enlivened, amongst other things, by coach Aaron Jones' helium-fuelled sub-10 rucking technique monologue.

The pink negligé was in great demand throughout the tour, in particular from Diogo Pinto, as it seemed that the common sense lessons from Argentina had proved tricky for many to absorb.

 

 

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