Lichfield Cathedral School

Our sixteen man U15 squad travelled to Scotland to face Wellington School (Mr. Stovell's new school) and Carrick Academy on a tour of South Ayrshire during Easter Half Term, 2009.

The lads were raring to go as they left the warmth of the Palace on Tuesday 17th February having completed their final training sessions for the school’s first ‘Rugby International’ despite enduring a final blast of snow and freezing conditions - excellent preparation for the climate North of Hadrian’s Wall!

Although Scotland would be chilly, we were well equipped with official Lichfield Cathedral embossed tour hoodies, hats and scarves generously donated by Paul and Nicky Sproule and Wade and Liz Lock.

With our minibus and support vehicles (one bought especially for the tour!) we left the Close in a convoy armed to the teeth with essential provisions. First stop was to pick up Mr Healey and Hayley at the Holiday Inn Junction 15. They were given a warm musical greeting by the lads as the minibus door opened in the form of a blast of ‘Lady Gaga’ – a tune we all came to know and love throughout the tour! So with all aboard and everyone enjoying the extra leg room in the Peugeot we checked our passports and headed on for the ‘land of the brave’.

Apart from a few tractors, we had a relatively easy journey, arriving at the Premier Inn, Ayr just in time for tea. It was nice to see Mr Stovell who joined us for a drink over our meal and gave us an official ‘tour’ welcome. The lads were pleased to see a familiar face in unfamiliar surroundings and this certainly helped us to feel more at ease in preparation for our first game against Wellington the next day.

A quiet night out to see Pink Panther 2 at the Odeon, Ayr followed our meal with some of the squad taking the opportunity to start their night's sleep early despite the ‘hilarity’ of the film! Perhaps the most exciting part of the evening was watching and listening to Dan Bennett attempt to drink a metre-long beaker containing a luminous, all-natural ingredients, ‘smoothie’.

A hearty full Scottish breakfast revived us the following morning. The other guests at the Premier Inn were in awe of us dressed in our cobalt blue Nike ‘Ayr’ tops. We really looked the business and this got our mental preparations for the game off to a flying start.

The mid morning training session at Wellington School’s rugby ground completed our preparations and with the help of Mr Healey’s and Mr Allen’s coaching we were firing on all cylinders. A light lunch with the pupils at Wellington flew by and before we knew it, it was time for kick off. A quick glance over to our team banner at the side of the pitch filled every player with determination and pride for LCS.

We made a great start with Jordan Sproule scoring the first try of the tour to give us an early lead. This advantage didn’t last for long however as Wellington capitalized on our failure to collect from the kick off. With a successful conversion, we found ourselves two points down. Another try by Wellington had the away fans a little concerned, but they needn’t have worried as Jack Ward picked up from the back of a ruck to drive over the try line. Lichfield were on a high as the whistle for half time blew leaving us within 2 points of the opposition at 12-10.

Jack Ward was determined to maintain our momentum and scored a dynamic try in the first 5 minutes of the second half from a pop up by Harmeet. This set the tone for the rest of the half with every man on the field determined to achieve a win. It wasn’t easy going, but with ferocious support from the touchlines and cameras snapping all the action, the U15s rose to the occasion with gusto! Kelvin Tse’s try in the final quarter of the game epitomized our team spirit and with George Allen having converted Jack Ward’s earlier try, we cruised to a well earned 22-12 victory. The first man of the match trophy kindly donated by Mr Lock was awarded to Kelvin for his indomitable spirit throughout the game.

The squad enjoyed a well deserved evening out on the town to celebrate their win and take in an awesome team performance – for many of the spectators their best ever. L.A. bowl was the perfect setting for a night on tour – bowling, eating, drinking (soft drinks!!) all accompanied by pulsating dance anthems. Sadly, Lady Gaga didn’t make an appearance on the turntables much to the staff’s disappointment. One of the highlights of the evening was Mr Healey’s score on the ‘Punch Out’ arcade game – over 600 points! One of the lowlights was Mr. Bratt’s score and he vowed to use his stronger arm next time instead of giving everyone else a chance.

The kick off time for our match against Carrick Academy was put back to 3.30 p.m. on Thursday which gave us all a much needed lie in. The lads followed their warm up ritual of the previous day with a healthy breakfast of fry ups all round! Once we’d packed the vehicles and made the beds in the Premier Inn (!), we took a leisurely journey into Ayr for our final coaching session.

Mr Stovell had kindly allowed us to use the Wellington School training ground once again and after some al fresco changing the lads limbered up with a ‘light’ session with Mr Healey (does such a thing exist?!). The game the previous day had been a grueling physical experience for all the players who still bore some scars from the match, but they all looked remarkably fresh considering.

Having taken on board a litre of lucozade, with the help of Toby Lock at the refilling station, we tucked into a light lunch, changed into LCS gear and made our way down to Maybole via the scenic route. We followed Carrick from their school to the pitch with players, parents and staff all experiencing the same uncanny sense of en masse déjà-vue!

We were all pleased to note that the pitch was pretty big which would give us chance to unleash our pace if Carrick gave us the chance. A thorough warm up prepared us for the game but not for the size of Carrick’s squad which numbered 20+ at the final count. The lads knew they were going to have a battle on their hands and stepped up to the challenge from the first whistle.

Nuri used his power and speed to put us on the scoreboard first driving and scoring a try from the back of the ruck. Carrick weren’t going to give up that easily however, and almost immediately gave us a wake-up call with a try run in from long distance. We knew we had to close Carrick down early if this experience was to be avoided again, but a few more missed tackles let the opposition in for a further try.

Jack Ward wasn’t going to have any of this and used his defiance to urge the players to step it up a gear. An awesome team effort produced results giving the chance to close the first half only 12-10 down to Carrick.

The second half opened a little depressingly with a dynamic run by the almost unstoppable Carrick number 8 who scored out wide. Jordan Sproule and George Allen used their dynamic handling skills to time some devastating passes giving our players an opportunity to show their pace. Their effort was rewarded with a try by Jordan in the final 5 minutes of the game but we still remained 17-15 down.

The final moments were tense with players from both sides feeling the immensity and pressure of an eye-wateringly physical game. Lichfield conceded an unlucky penalty with two minutes to go giving Carrick the opportunity they needed to seal our fate. They did not miss this chance to put more points on the board making the final score 20-15 to Carrick.

All spectators agreed that this had been Lichfield’s finest performance to date: despite having the odds packed against them in the form of a match the previous day coupled with several injuries and only one sub, they had played the game of their lives. We all clutched the official tour banner with pride as our brave lads limped, shuffled and crawled their way back to the changing rooms in a state of total exhaustion. They had all given absolutely everything in the name of Lichfield Cathedral School.

Mr Healey’s words rang true with everyone as he presented the man of the match trophy to Jordan Sproule back at Carrick Academy. We will all have memories of a ferocious and emotional game in which we came so close to doing the double!

Having accepted the generous gifts and hospitality of Carrick with dignity, we set sail for the long trip home. A peak in the minibus mirror at around 10.15 pm on our way down the M6 confirmed the enormity of each player’s effort over the past two days - all of them fast asleep!

The players and staff wish to thank all the parents for their generous support of the tour. To Nikky, Paul, Liz, Wade, Toby and Ben for donating so much kit, coaching time and support, making the journey and organisation of the tour as easy as possible for the players and staff. And to Ross and Mr And Mrs Standerwick for giving us their loyal support when we needed it the most hundreds of miles away from home. We would also like to thank Mr Stevenson for his extremely generous donation to our fund raiser at Morrison’s Supermarket. The tour was truly a team effort both on and off the pitch and an experience we will never ever forget!

(Special thanks to Nikky Sproule for producing a wonderful pictorial record of the tour which we can all look back on with fondness in years to come).

Steve Bratt

Director of Sport