Sub-8/10/12 Treviso Tour 2013

Treviso Tour 2013 - report, videos and photographs.

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Click here to view Danilo Ballotta's Sub-8 Treviso Tour Video: http://goo.gl/RHRRQ

Click here to view images from the tour: http://goo.gl/ZdRv8

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Sub-8/10/12 Rugby Tour to Treviso, Italy

Tour Report

St. Julian’s Rugby Club’s third tour to Treviso in Italy to compete in the Trofeo Topolino over the second weekend in May was another unforgettable experience for all concerned.

Alarm clocks had obviously done their job as the Tour Party congregated at Lisbon Airport at the monastic hour of 6.00 am on the Friday morning. The group was bigger than ever with 43 players from the sub-8, sub-10 and sub-12 age-groups, 9 coaches, 3 “matrons” and over 30 family members - all suitably decked out in their very smart Treviso 2013 tour kit (provided by Médis).

There was some inevitable minor personnel dispersal as sustenance was sought in the food hall, before some clever pre-booking by our agent brought us back together and concentrated into the back third of the aircraft (with the exception of our few business class addicts). Any other passengers who had not been overly-thrilled by the prospect of sharing the close confines of a jet airliner for 3 hours with such a large and excitable group of children need not have worried, as the collective behaviour was first class - at least, that is, after sufficient altitude had been gained for the electronic devices to be permitted to be switched back on.

Having touched down to thunderous applause at Venice’s Marco Polo Airport, the rugby travel gods then sped us through arrivals, with barely enough time to catch a waft of pizza, and on to our waiting fleet of luxury private coaches. There had been some minor side bets placed on the names of our drivers, with Luigi an early favourite, but this frivolous speculation resulted only in burnt fingers when a Signor Dennis (no relation to our own Master McDaid) presented himself and ushered us to our seats.

If the staff at Treviso’s Hotel Maggior Consiglio were feeling any trepidation as their immaculate lobby became rapidly swamped by St. Julian’s rugby players, they certainly did not betray it and, before long, some well-organised bambini distribution was underway, followed by a mass outbreak of room key card confusion and sporadic strategic corridor-running adult tolerance testing. The only way to bring an end to all that nonsense was to announce the arrival downstairs of half a ton of free pizza, generously donated by Mr Daniel Hubert, as his wife, Jessica, efficiently completed arrangements at reception. Following its rapid ingestion, the general consensus was that the tour was already a huge success.

After this late lunch the players were escorted by their coaches along the 10 minute walk to get a sneak preview of the magnificent La Ghirada sports ground, founded by the rugby-mad Benetton family in 1982 and in absolutely tip-top condition for the arrival the next day of 5,000 rugby players from all over Italy and Europe to compete in the thirty fifth version of one of Europe’s biggest youth rugby tournaments. The weather was set fair for rugby (cool, wet and hearteningly muddy) and some impromptu games got the journey out of our systems.

Back in the hotel the tour matrons (Ann Frost, Manuela Mount and Jessica Hubert) performed the first of their many miraculous feats in getting the troops showered, dried and dressed in time for the opening tour dinner, which, once again, very much hit the spot. With a long and physically demanding weekend of rugby ahead of us, orders for a fairly early night were issued and players sent off to their twin or triple rooms for some much needed rest.

The matrons were in action again very early on the Saturday morning, as the first matches were due to start by 9.00 am, but were pleasantly surprised by how readily the eager players responded to their gentle cajoling. There was, however, neither a hint of gentleness nor of cajolement on display as the straight-talking Mr Steele found a secluded corner to get all three teams together into a mass huddle and precisely the right tone and words for the purposes of girding up their loins for the battles ahead.

All roads in Italy that Saturday morning lead to La Ghirada and we were now just three of over 250 teams that were making their merry way along them. Although still cool, wet and muddy, the ground had been transformed into a seething gigantic rugby playground and the uninitiated amongst us would have struggled to take it all in. The coaches would also have had their work cut out to warm up limbs and focus a few minds ahead of the all-important opening matches.

The format of the Topolino sees the 88 teams in each age-group split into groups of 6 teams for the first round of matches which come fast and furious on the Saturday morning. This format throws up some early mismatches but ensures that the games are more even on the Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. It also means that teams need to start well if they have ambitions to finish high in the final classifications.

This year our most ambitious squad was the sub-8s, who possessed several very strong players and a proud warrior spirit. Although they started off with a loss against the host club Benetton Treviso, they went through the rest of the morning unbeaten and kept their supporters very entertained throughout. Vicente Vegar, Francisco Pissarra, Max Coutts and Vasco Silva were constant threats with ball in hand, whilst Sebatião Bowden, Diogo Neto and Joseph Frost defended like terriers and made life very uncomfortable for all of their opponents. Giacomo Luraschi, whose grandfather had come down from Milan to watch him play, made a try-saving tackle which will live long in the memory.

The sub-10s also had some serious fire-power in the ranks, but struggled to keep the ball alive and, unlike the sub-8s, found it tough recovering from a heavy defeat in their opening encounter. Although there were flashes of their potential, with players like Jens de Pooter, Diogo Alves, Gabby Abdali and Oscar Connolly-Connell playing their hearts out, some heads went down and too many tackles were missed, with the result that, although they had two excellent chances to win games, they let both slip and finished the morning in rather low spirits for a team that had also started the day with hopes high.

The sub-12 team, on the other hand, kept their heads when things were going against them and stuck together throughout the trials and tribulations of the first morning, managing to put together some good phase play and record some impressive wins against bigger opposition. Katerina Goold conducted operations well from scrum-half and both Sydney Rous and Alejandro Cabrera were impressive in attack and defence. Severo Portela, Diogo Franco Soares and Luca Ferreira provided some valuable forward momentum, while João Costa and António Miranda looked dangerous in the open spaces.

At the conclusion of the first round matches, all had certainly earned their lunch and joined the queue for Treviso’s version of the feeding of the five thousand, involving a good deal more raw material than five loaves and two fishes, but a pretty impressive spectacle nevertheless. The combined recuperative effects on the players of a belly full of pasta and the sun on their backs were much in evidence during the afternoon games, with the sub-10s finally coming to the party as Bram Bresser hit top form, and the sub-8s continuing their barnstorming run of victories.

At the end of a physically exhausting day that tested many a character, there were some happy but very tired bodies back at the hotel, and, with a hearty evening meal consumed and some tall stories shared, the nannies found a lot less resistance to their lights-out-and-go-to-sleep-now routines than had been the case on the previous evening.

Sunday morning dawned bright and beautiful and all teams enjoyed further success in the final rounds of matches before moving on to the packed main Benetton Treviso rugby stadium to watch the various age-group finals and fuel their dreams of future glory. The end of tour dinner back at the hotel was an excellent opportunity to come together as a tour party and celebrate the accomplishments (including the announcement of Jens de Pooter as the winner of the Best Rugby Tourist Award), as well as recognising the role played by the staff and parents in making the tour such a success. Jessica Hubert received a well-deserved extended ovation for her efforts in organising the tour and Mr Zane Winslade treated us to a traditional Maori haka, which spawned several lame attempts at mimicry from the sub-10s.

Having decided to extend this year’s tour by one night, we were blessed with a sunny Monday morning that was perfect for families to take children off to see the extraordinary sights in nearby Venice, in what proved to be the latte art on top of the cappuccino of another hugely enjoyable Sub-8/10/12 Treviso Tour.

Simon Mount