Thursday 6th August 2009
Weather cold and raining
8.30am Breakfast - Cereals, Fruit, Assorted Breads, Juice, Milk, Coffee and Tea, thoroughly enjoyed by all.
10.30am Training all Backs and Forwards, Forwards did training in scrums, lineouts and tackling Backs did training in passing drills, tackling drills and ball skills, and then both forwards and backs did a game in defending and attacking
1.00pm Lunch at Stellenbosch University, we had crumbed Chicken Snitzel with roasted potatoes, mashed pumpkin and rice and cold drinks
4.15pm To ground - Paul Roos Stadium for our training match against a Simonberg one of the top Hostel Teams in Stellenbosch
5.00pm This was an outstanding rugby match on both sides, Simonberg is quick, strong and a very talented rugby team, Rugby India held its own, we defended well, ran well, scrummed well, and overall learnt a lot during the 60 minutes of rugby and am sure this will be but a huge learning curve for Rugby India, but isn’t that why we are here, but to learn. The style of rugby played in South Africa is so different to what our Indian boys are used to, quick and fast, very hard and the tour is becoming a wakeup call to the boys who’ve really only been exposed to Asian Rugby in the past!
Rugby India has created a huge following in Stellenbosch, and everyone wishes us well, after the game they all crowded onto the field and sang a song, this was a hostel song that they sang for the Indian boys, huge moment for them all.
Rugby is at the Commonwealth Games, 2010 to be held in Delhi.