Ballyclare High School have returned from an immensely successful tour to New Zealand and The Cook Islands.
The tour was successful on all levels, from the rugby to the memories and new expereinces of visiting such an amazing place.
We are particularly delighted that over the course of the tour the Ballyclare boys emerged the victors against the majority of teams they played. They won 7 out of the 10 games played and the most amazing win came against the St Bedes team by 22 to 21 points. St Bedes are in the top 8 schools sides in New Zealand. Ballyclare High showed fantastic character to go ahead in the first ten minutes and then in the last 20 to emerge the victors scoring 2 tries!
Well done to everyone on the Ballyclare tour, you played some amazing rugby and we look forward to covering you moving forward in your games at home.
Intouch Rugby completed a tour blog for the school which you can visit here. The blog kept family and friends up to date here while the guys were on tour and seems to have proved a success with messages and reports being sent back and forth. Pictures were uploaded while on tour as well providing some exciting action shots of the games the guys played.
You can visit the Ballyclare High School Tour Blog – Click Here
55 pictures from the tour – CLICK HERE
Below are some of the comments from boys who were on tour.
Ruminations
Opportunities and adventures, the tour certainly has for me. Probably my favourite part of the tour so far is travelling around different places and seeing different ways of life and cultures. So far Dunedin has been my favourite stop as the city was awesome and had stunning beaches and views. On the rugby side of things it’s been great, we have had our challenges and proceeded well with both teams doing Ballyclare High School and Northern Ireland proud. Climate wise we have adapted well as we are used to chilly temperatures. Looking ahead, excitement and enthusiasm come to mind as the tour is definitely not over! I conclude with ” bring on the cook islands”.
By Luke Montgomery
Alexandria
we arrived in Alexandria after a 3 and a half hour bus journey on Monday.the weather here is incredibly cold and frosty.today we played our third rugby match against dunstan which we won 27 – 5 and the A’s won 53-7.it was a tough physical match with some brilliant runs by James buckley and jack Irvine and also a double dummy by David Lawther.after the match we Had a BBQ which was prepared by Mr Soper’s dad.tomorrow we are travelling to queenstown were we will do the triple challenge. We are having a great time and I hope all is well back home.
By David Stewart
Week 1 of Our Tour
We began our tour in Christchurch where the weather was dry but insanely cold. This trend has carried on throughout the tour with the weather being sunny during the day but freezing cold at night. After our stay in Christchurch we moved onto to Timaru where we were billeted out for two nights with the families of the players we played against. The first game was brilliant for both teams, the A team won quite comfortably in the end although the timaru boys fought hard in the closing moments of the match while the B team was narrowly beaten 16 – 13. A great time was had by all and it was an excellent experience for everyone, playing against a school from the southern hemisphere. We then moved down to Dunedin for a few days which was great fun and we are currently in Alexandra eagerly anticipating our next fixture against Dunstan High School.
By J Holmes
