Cambridge House Rugby’s trip to Rome started with a 2am departure to catch the early flight from Dublin direct to Rome. Check in at Dublin was unbelievably quiet which meant a speedy check-in and an opportunity for breakfast before take-off. The flight was totally uneventful and we arrived in Rome and transferred to the Hotel Syracusa, right in the middle of the city centre. We started our orientation of the city with lunch in a world famous restaurant named after a famous Scottish family and retired to the hotel in preparation for our first game that evening.
An evening kick-off against Roma Accademia, one of the Italian Rugby Unions Academy teams, was not an ideal start to the tour after a long nights travelling, but the team were all keen to test themselves and looking forward to playing on a 4G pitch under lights. In freezing conditions with a strong breeze blowing the Roam team quickly set out their stall to play fast and expansive rugby and were 20 points up in just as many minutes. The Cambridge team then realised that to compete with the pace and size of the opposition they would have to give their all and for the remainder of the first half kept possession and pressurised their opponents. This resulted in the teams turning around at half time with the score 27-10 after Mark Paine and Matthew Harkness both scored tries from patient build-ups.
The second half was just as exciting as the first with the entire bench being used as the long day travelling began to take its toll on energy levels. Many of the substitutions were effective and the pace of the game did not ease. Roma continued to play at an incredible pace and scored three more excellent tries but on many occasions were matched by the Cambridge team and the try of the match belonged to the Cambridge left winger, Josh Whann, who started and finished a wonderful move with a 50 metre run beating several defenders to score beneath the posts. This along with a score from Andrew Hood and a conversion from Tim Small meant that the game finished 47-22 to Roma but both sides happy with their performances and Kristoffer Steele very happy with his Man of the Match award.
The following day was another busy one with a guided tour of the sights of Rome with our guide, Fabrizio. He gave us a wonderful tour of the Coliseum, the Forum, Monumento a Vittorio Emanuelle, Mussolini’s house and many more historic sites. An afternoon of shopping and dinner in the local pizzeria was followed by a quiz organised by Mr. Glass. Shock of the tour was that this was won by Kristoffer Steele’s team with an amazing comeback in the Geography round!
Saturday started with a late breakfast and then training at the Capitalone club on another artificial pitch. Everyone worked hard and enjoyed the first sunshine of the trip. Lunch was once again in our favourite restaurant where the Maitre’de, Ronald, looked after us very well. Later that evening the squad enjoyed watching Angelina Jolie when they visited the cinema.
The second match of the tour was against Appia Rugby a relatively new club to the city. The club is situation just outside the city boundary and surrounded by two thousand year old ruins which were an inspiring back drop to the pitch. The actual playing surface was less inspiring being completely devoid of any grass! This did not restrict the playing style of Cambridge House who took up where they had left off in their previous outing and moved the ball all over the pitch to record a 72-0 victory. Scorers were Matthew Harkness (3 tries), Andrew Hood (1 Try), Warren Beattie (2 tries), Matthew Irvine (1 Try), Kristoffer Steele (1 Try, 6 conversions), Mark Paine (1 Try), Simon Rock (1 Try), Jordan Robinson (2 tries and Man of the Match). Despite the result, Appia were fantastic hosts laying on a three course meal and presenting everyone with club T-shirts commemorating the game and time spent with our hosts allowed players from both teams to practice their language skills.
The evening was spent in an exciting treasure hunt around Rome where teams had to locate Mr. Glass and Mr. Nicholl. Everyone entered into the spirit of the chase and Matthew McBrien’s team were victorious by a huge margin, testament to their map reading and navigation skills. Mark Paine, star A level geography student, won the award for seeing most of Rome without finding any of the allocated points!
Our last full day was spent with a tour of the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica which was an amazing experience followed by a dinner and prize-giving in the Hard Rock Cafe.
An early start the next morning meant we were on schedule to get our return flight to Dublin as planned and all went according to plan until we started our descent in Dublin. At this point the captain informed us that Dublin airport was closed due to heavy snow and we would be going to Edinburgh! After a few hours in Edinburgh we re-boarded our plane to head for Dublin but once again the weather caused disruption but thankfully this time we were diverted to Belfast Airport! Although a little later than planned, everyone arrived home safely with lots of good memories and lots of great stories!
