Game 3 - Durham, Holy Island

Mr Bale’s incoherent ramblings about all things English have finally subsided as we spend our third full day on English soil. Remarkably, we encountered our first rainy day on tour on the way to England. It certainly made our visit to Holy Island and Lindisfarne atmospheric and we could imagine St Cuthbert and the monks shivering within the freezing walls of the priory and ever wary of attacks from Vikings and other marauding tribes. Due to the tides that flood the causeway to Holy Island, the touring party could take two extra hours to rest their battered bodies and Mr Bale some time to reflect on how he got his reading of the tide times so wrong.

Leaden skies accompanied us all the way to the Northumbrian capital of Durham or Der-Ham as some of the less astute members of the touring party might pronounce this. Once again, the boys met their gracious host families from the Durham school and later enjoyed some Nando’s and time to wander this beautiful cathedral and university town with their billets. Wayne is still spending all of his time with Izaac and by his current form, will spend a few more days in Izaac’s company.

The next morning the Durham teachers showed us around the Harry Potteresque Durham School. It boasts the fifth oldest rugby club in the world and a chapel that commemorates the school’s Old Boys who fell in the Great War and World War Two. Later that morning, we took the boys to a local go karting track to sort the men from the boys. Mr Golder’s sluggish form around the course earned him last place out of thirty drivers. Two Speeds Nishioka wasn’t much quicker and managed to collide with every barrier and other driver on the track; we all should be wary if he ever manages to earn his Ps in the years to come. Izaac spent 10 minutes wedged under twenty tyres and needed five track officials to pull him out. Daniel Browne and Mr Bale proved the most aggressive drivers and our tour leader was the only driver to manage to get red-carded on the day. Kane’s speed on the rugby pitch was emulated on the kart track as he recorded the fastest lap.

Blue skies greeted us as we arrived back at Durham School for a three o’clock kick off. The starting team has been affected by a growing injury list and as a gallant Kane Fitzgerald left the field with a fractured wrist, our lack of backline depth was further exposed. The All Saints team managed to secure around 70% of the possession but failed to score points. Being camped in the opposition’s 22 for multiple phases on three separate occasions only yielded three length of the field tries to the Durham boys. Basic deficiencies in catching, drawing and passing and maintaining sufficient depth lost us a game that we should have won. On a positive note our scrum was the best it has been and even shunted our opposition back for the first time on tour. Kim Chang’s and Nick Stephen’s rapid improvement in this area was crucial to the scrum holding its own. Jake Power scored one try and Luke Alker one conversion as we went down 19-7. Mr Nolan took Kane and Matt to the hospital and Kane has had surgery on his wrist. Both are now back with the touring party.

On Friday the boys explored the cathedral that houses the remains of St Cuthbert and St Bede. Built by the Normans 900 years ago to stamp their authority on the region, the cathedral is still the most imposing of structures. Dalton, Hiro, Daniel and the teachers ascended the 350 stairs to the top of the cathedral. Fortunately for Mr Golder, this toil was successfully sidestepped as he kept a bedside vigil at the hospital with Kane. Lachlan Cook has mastered the Geordie accent in our short stay. Tomorrow we head towards Wales and attend West Bromwich versus Liverpool on the way.