While our competitive games are drawing to a close and we get ready for the sound of leather on willow, there was still time for a end of season jaunt to France to give us an opportunity to pit English muscle against French flair and of course for the boys to forge some lasting shared memories.

On our first full day we visited the battlefields of Ypres and Passchendaele, a grim reminder of conflict for the wrong reasons where the boys had an opportunity to experience on a very small scale some of the horrors of that war, including gravestones of boys who had lied about their age, volunteered and then perished at the age of 15.

The day was lightened somewhat by a contingent of Dutch schoolgirls at some of the same sights which did seem to distract a fair number of our team.

On to the main event a tournament at Arras Rugby Club – the numbers of teams in our group were depleted by the French National Clubs Championship so we played in a round robin league format with 2 games of 25 mins one way against each of 2 French teams, one from Senlis and one collective team from a valley north of Paris, Entente de L’Aisne.

Late nights seem to had taken a toll on the boys in the morning as they didn’t really get going to their full potential. First up were Senlis, smaller than us but with typical Gallic flair, quick hands and fast in attack. We found ourselves behind early on but eventually our power started to make an impact – despite some really poor rucking and high penalty counts (more of which later) - and tries from Issac and Alfie just took us over the line for a narrow but hard fought victory 10-5 – no conversions or penalties under Tournament rules

Next up were Entente de L’Aisne. Having watched their other game, they were clearly going to pose a bigger threat with some fast backs and some really big ball carrying forwards. Our poor form carried over and we never really got going, struggling to secure ball, losing a lot on rucks and again subject to a number of penalties. Despite murmurs about home referees the boys never lost their discipline but we slipped to a 5-0 defeat

So onto the afternoon games - the boys warmed up for this by staying in the midday sun like true Englishmen and practicing their place kicking – interesting given this was not something we would be able to do!

So a rematch against Senlis which was much different from the morning – the boys were transformed with more energy and discipline and much more attacking threat. Senlis continued to play excellent rugby but we were simply too strong and fast with tries from Freddie H, Judah, Sam and Alfie gave us a commanding 20-0 victory despite a high penalty count.

So all was now riding on our final match – if we won, we won the tournament. I was rather confused by the penalty count so took the opportunity to speak to the referee who spoke pretty good English as an English teacher in a local school. At this stage we leaned that high tackles were above the waist – not the sternum – and that we were not allowed to tackle in pairs – like we have trained the boys. Probably would have helped if we had found this out earlier!

So on to the final match against Entente de L’Aisne who had beaten us in the morning – the game was again hard fought and the teams were quite evenly matched. But we kept the ball away from their really excellent back row forwards by getting the ball out wide and our superior fitness – we had more boys to rotate saw us to a 25-5 victory with two tries apiece from Harvey and Alfie and another from Sam. And ultimate tournament victory and quite a big cup

No negatives and positives from me this week, just some random observations

• The afternoon was as good as they have ever played – they worked as a collective with backs and forwards working in harmony and really good decision making. They need to build from this
• Coaches need to read the rules! But bad boys are Lenny, Emmerich, Callum and Rhian all of whom ended up in the sin bin. Think the coaches ought to take the rap for those.
• This success was a result of every player being involved. We rotated in every game and everyone played their part. In the end we were fresher in the last game and that made a difference.
• The tour was really great fun – great bonding of both parents and boys – I think the boys were marginally better behaved than the parents but that might be for others to judge. And for my part never being in a tent again is a massive bonus – and while I enjoyed Dorset, give me a bed and a bar any day
• Great support from parents – easily heard in some of the videos – it was brilliant to spend the time getting to know so many of you in an informal setting .
• While a collective effort from a number of us, this man deserves the first proper trophy this group has won. He has been the driving force behind recruitment and the building of this group of boys- Top Man D
• And finally and most importantly thanks to Jade and Vickie in particular for the fantastic work they did in organising the tour with endless paperwork, payments and all the other admin. They kept us all mostly in check as the “responsible adults” and poor Vickie had to top this off with a hospital visit in support of Freddie Y.

It was a brilliant tour and we all have loads of memories – just one final question for me – how do you wake up Jimmy?