Ormskirk RUFC South African Tour
Day 7 Wednesday 22 August 2007
The team travelled today to the Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch, one of the top 5 schools in South Africa and a school which has produced a number of Springbock players. The school is blessed with 5 under 15 teams to compete for places and to select players from. Prior to the game the supporters travelled to Castle Walks shopping arcade, the Trafford Centre of Cape Town. It was an excellent place to spend time if you are excited by the thought of shopping for shoes, clothes and handbags.
The B team kicked off first and faced an excellent and well drilled team. Despite dominating in the forwards and imposing themselves on the Paul Roos 22, the faster back player of the opponents was telling. The Paul Roos scrum half was a very good player and was able to direct the passing to lethal effect. The B team gave a fantastic account of themselves and players worked hard to try and impose themselves on the game. Oliver Thorburn was excellent and played out of his skin; he seemed to be everywhere and was a real handful to the Paul Roos boys. Steve ‘Smiggy’ Smith also deserves a mention he played fantastic today and was an inspiration to his team-mates. Tom Sinclair also played a captain’s role and inspired and encouraged the boys to the end. All the forwards played well today and gave a good account. Lewis Amer also had a fantastic game and seemed to be all over the pitch, he made one tackle which put the opponent into next week, well done. The Ormskirk team were outdone by a team playing at their physical peak.
The A team game was the last game and from the drop out they imposed themselves on the opposition. The team became encamped in the opposing teams 22, the forwards were able to out power the opponents, despite this they were undone by a breakaway try. The Paul Roos backs were very quick and showed a fantastic turn of pace, especially two boys on a scholarship due to their athletic ability. The Ormskirk team dominated for long periods of the game but due to some excellent forward passes and some less than impartial refereeing, such as the blatant offside and blocking runs, the opposing team managed to score using their speedy backs. Indeed their backs were the only part of their team functioning well. Special mention must be made to some Ormskirk players, Ryan Glynn, Ali Sutherland, Daryl Bold all played above themselves, as did Adam Killeen. During the game the team had to suffer a great deal of spoiling tactics from the opponents, such as high tackles, punches and deliberate kneeing. Eventually this caused friction due to inability of the referee to punish the opposition. It was only in the second half he sent one of their players off for deliberate killing of the ball.
At the end of the game the players were sporting in their praise for the opponents. We all sat down to a meal and speeches were made. To be fair they realised they had met a good team and were fulsome in their praise of the players. It was nice to see players who earlier wanted to play ‘bish and bash’ with each other sit around and laugh and joke and shake each others hand. This was commented on by Donny as being the one aspect of the game, it is a family of rugby and at the end it comes down to this.
We leave Cape Town tomorrow with some excellent memories and experiences, the players have been exposed to not only different styles of play, but different cultures and a wealth of experiences which hopefully will remain with them for a long time.
