Monday 3rd August 2009 8.30am Breakfast, Cereals, Fruit, Assorted Breads, Juice, Milk, Coffee and Tea, thoroughly enjoyed by all. 10.00am Back Training with Norman for 1 hour. 11.00am Forward Training with Neil Fullard Scrum Coach who has played Super 14 rugby for Stormers untill a serious neck injury forced him to stop playing. 1 hour 1.00pm Lunch on the Stellenbosch University Campus, everybody loved going through the university, many comments of "wanting to be students again". This is a huge campus, the main dining area is two stories with shops from Stationery, Travel, ATM's and banks, and one whole bottom floor dedicated to food, at very reasonable prices. Free until 3.30pm 4.00pm Off to the ground Paul Ross Stadium for the 1st match against a hostel team called Hels Hoogte Kick off 5.00pm30min each wayFirst half.....Hels Hoogte scored first, and the next phase of play after kick off again because of great defence Gopinath Balaraman came right up off the line and intercepted the ball and made straight for the line, 1st try for India. Rohaan Sethna Conversion 7 - 7Next score Rohaan Sethna put over a perfect penatly goal for a further 3 points.Hels Hoogte scored again next 10 - 14After further pressure from Rugby India Bikash Jena made for the line for a further 5 points. Rohaan Sethna Conversion 14-17 Half Time
Second Half......A lot of mistakes and untidy play against both teams however Hels Hoogte were fitter in area's and their defence was stronger.... Final Score 31-17 Hels Hoogte Finished 6.30pm Dinner 7.15pm We all had Double Chicken Burgers or Ribs, along with chips and salad 9.30pm Round up and talk about what sort of game the players thought they had back at Stellenbosch Hotel Funny Stuff While the boys were practicing on the scrum machine the coach was saying to the front row to say "Deep, Squeeze" as they were pushing on the machine, opposite to where we are practicing there is a girls schools, this must have been on one of their breaks because all we could hear from over the fence by about 20 girls is "Deep Squeeze" all the boys cracked up........ I have had to tell the boys on more than one occasion not to touch, cuddle, hold hands, or sit on each other in a way that would raise an eyebrow, however the boys are finding this hard to comprehend and forget in moments of being funny or telling each other a joke as South Africa is still quite a old fashioned community and can’t quite deal with men playing rugby holding hands and cuddling one most the time, so I keep telling them if they keep doing that no girl will look at them, I think they are learning.
Rugby is at the Commonwealth Games, 2010 to be held in Delhi.