St. Julian's and Galiza together at Youth Rugby Festival

St. Julian's and Galiza joined forces to put out 4 teams at the Youth Rugby Festival before Easter.

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23 players from St. Julian's pulled on the black and white hooped shirts of Escolinha de Rugby da Galiza to play in three teams entered at sub-13, sub-15 and sub-17 age-groups. Players from both clubs enjoyed success and had much fun in the tournament, which featured clubs from various countries.

The most successful team in terms of results was the St. julian's sub-19 team, who were joined in turn by several players from Galiza and who finished higher than any other Portuguese team in 3rd place.

This collaboration has forged closer ties between our two clubs and led to some real friendships developing amongst the players. Many thanks to Galiza president, Maria Gaivão, for her initiative, drive and huge heart, to all of our parents who provided their children and supported the teams over the weekend, and to the Galiza and St. Julian's coaches who helped prepare the teams for action.

A slide show set to music produced by Galiza with images from the event can be viewed at:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/gmXYCXeRKaY

Simon Mount

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Sub-19 Team Coach, Damian Steele, adds:

The first weekend of the Easter holidays saw the first ever St Julian´s team enter the Portuguese Youth Rugby Festival, played over two days at Jamor, and involving over 1700 rugby players from across the globe.

We entered in the Sub 19 category, with the majority of the squad coming from our Sub 18 team, plus some reinforcements from Galiza, Cascais and Direito.  The boys performed exceptionally well over the two days, finishing a highly commendable 3rd place.  This was the best of the Portuguese team entries and behind only, the impressive Crawshays (Wales) and Biarritz (France) visiting teams. 

The highlight of the weekend was the 3rd place play off on the Sunday afternoon, which saw us snatch an extra time victory over Gonzaga (United States of America), to avenge the heart wrenching 2 point loss against the same team in the pool match, and earn our place on the podium.

Overall, it was a thoroughly enjoyable event for all involved.  To play against opposition from other countries, with varying physical size and shapes, and from completely different rugby cultures and environments, was a very valuable and beneficial learning experience for all of our players.