Rosmini Rugby Development Tour 2024
In April, a Rosmini 1st XV Development Squad was fortunate enough to send 30 students and five coaches to Gold Coast, Australia, to train and play against some of Australia’s top rugby schools. The 10-day tour was a way for the boys to build relationships with each other as well as offering new experiences. For many of the boys it was their first time out of the country.
The squad went up against some of the strongest teams in the Gold Coast/Brisbane region, playing three games over the duration of the tour. First up was Iona College in Brisbane. We put out a strong starting team which led us into the half time break, up 14-0. But unfortunately, in the second half a few mistakes lead to us falling behind on the scoreboard resulting in a full-time loss 21-19.
Next up was Villanova High School, which was also located in Brisbane, where we put on a bit of a clinic and came away with a 52-19 win.
Lastly, we played Southport, which are one of the top ranked 1st XVs in the Queensland district. Both teams had squads of 30 players and agreed to play their top side for the first two 20-minute quarters of the game. The boys got stuck in straight away with a result of 28-3 at half time – the score that mattered!
The team was also given plenty of free time, including three days spent at Gold Coast's commonly known theme parks; Sea World, Wet N Wild, and Movie World. These were all great activities for the boys to build new relationships with each other and be pushed out of their comfort zone on the roller coaster rides. We also spent much of our time exploring the malls and beaches of the Gold Coast. We all thought it was pretty similar to New Zealand but with a lot better weather and also a great city with more beautiful beaches!
With all of us boys sharing rooms this helped us create a great culture and community for our 2024 season, by taking care of ourselves and creating friendships and having a great time with the boys around the accommodation and theme parks.
Overall, the tour was very successful in many ways, from building new friendships and competing with other top 1st XV schools, to also just having a good time with friends, living a rugby-based lifestyle.
We would like to take this chance to thank Joseph O’Reilly for all the work he has put into this trip behind the scenes and getting us there. I don’t think any of us boys can imagine how much effort and time he has put in to making it possible for us, so a big thanks to Joseph.
To our coaches Richard Mayhew, Josh Hoskin, Sam Nash, and Mitch Powlesland – we are so grateful to you for giving up precious work and family time to enable this tour to take place. To raise funds for the tour we set up a Job Squad and completed several jobs from bush clearing and bottle labelling to car washes and landscaping. It was both hard work and rewarding, again building relationships with our teammates.
As a wrap, I would just like to thank and congratulate us all and our parents for all our hard work pre-tour. Without these efforts it would not have been possible, and we are forever grateful – memories for life!
Rosmini Rugby 1st XV Development Squad
