Rugby Development Tour South Africa 2014
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RUGBY DEVELOPMENT TOUR SOUTH AFRICA 2014 The Value of Touring Frank Hadden Player Profiles A South African Touring Experience Charles Swan From the Headmaster You cannot imagine how lucky you all are to have this opportunity to represent the School on a rugby tour to South Africa! Playing sport has so much to teach us – some of these lessons are about winning and losing gracefully; challenging ourselves and stretching beyond our comfort zones; displaying leadership; learning how to assess, take risks and be courageous; and not least working as a team. Together Everybody Achieves More! These are all very important life skills – ones you will need as you go out in due course into the world of university and employment, but also vital lessons to learn in your relationships with other people, whatever their context. Touring plays a significant role in all these lessons. It is also important to note that our recent tours have seen a change of Merchiston policy in the sense that the touring party includes many more boys; it is a very inclusive occasion. The experience is all about the development of so many of you in all aspects of what it means to be a human being. Accordingly, I do hope you enjoy playing rugby in a remarkably fluent fashion over the course of the tour! So, enjoy the challenge of playing against other teams whose style may be different. Do not forget that South Africa is a world leading rugby playing country! Play fairly! Learn well! Represent yourselves, your School and your families well, and be ambassadors of all three. Before we leave the theme of Africa, I was born in Kenya, East Africa as was my father. Take a deep breath when you first step out into the South African air. Observe the clarity and brightness of the light. I have never forgotten these two aspects of Africa. Indeed, I hope these aspects inspire you to return to Africa. And what about after the tour? It is also important, is it not, to bear in mind that we will expect to see the learning experiences of going on tour reflected on the games pitches at Merchiston over the course of the coming season? Touring is fun, but it should also be a steep learning curve, and you should be hungry to learn, improve and display to us on your return what you have learned. My very best wishes to you all, and indeed my thanks to your sponsors, hosts, parents and to the members of staff who will have helped to make this tour the success I am sure it will be. On behalf of Merchiston, may I also thank all the host families for welcoming us so kindly and for helping us to make our visit a success. Good luck to all participants! Thank you very much to the organisers of the tour. Andrew Hunter February 2014 Contents Articles The Value of Touring Frank Hadden Page 4 A South African Touring Experience Charles Swan Page 26 Features Tour Itinerary Page 6 Player Profiles Page 8 Coaching Staff Profiles Page 22 Our Opponents Page 24 Design and Print - Platinumgraphics.co.uk - Print and Design A Boarding and Day School for Boys aged 7-18. Merchiston Castle School, Colinton Road, Edinburgh, EH13 0PU, Scotland. Tel: 0131 312 2200. www.merchiston.co.uk Recognised by the Inland Revenue as a Charity, number SC016580 The Value of Touring Frank Hadden On arrival at Merchiston in 1983 I was certainly not weighed down with years of coaching experience, but I did have a few key principles which I hoped would stand me in good stead and no shortage of enthusiasm. One of these principles was a belief in the value of Touring. My first ever “Rugby Tour” was in 1972, with the North and Midlands Schools, although perhaps the word “Tour” was a bit strong as we played only one game against Northumberland Schools at Percy Park. It felt like a Tour because we stayed overnight in Whitley Bay. When teaching in West Yorkshire before coming a tournament in Orthez in the foothills of the to Merchiston, I met a guy called Ray French, an Pyrenees and was instantly hooked on the value English League and Union International who still of touring to a School Rugby programme. commentates on Rugby League on the BBC. In 1983, Merchiston Rugby was not in a great While selling me a raffle ticket for his next tour st he extolled the virtues of taking young men place and the 1 XV hardly won a match, so we around the world to play rugby. I duly organised went to Holland and had some fun. At the time my first trip, for Guiseley School near Leeds, to it was not common for any of the Scottish 4 Schools to venture beyond the British Isles but everyone in to a point where we can be Holland was just the start. By the time I finally competitive against the best teams in the world. left in 2000, as well as several trips around the British Isles, the 1st XV had been to France x 2, My two Tours as Scotland Coach were to South Portugal x 2, Japan, Argentina and Australia x 2. Africa and Argentina. Both are real rugby countries and it helped having visited both on Travelling across the globe requires a previous trips. In Argentina in 2008 we won for monumental fundraising effort and is not the first time in the southern hemisphere since something you can do every year but those 1983. pupils who were eligible for the ‘Big Tours’ were especially lucky. It’s always fascinating visiting In 2006 after getting thrashed in the first test in new places and learning where rugby sits within Durban by South Africa we came close to the culture of that country and they say a team winning the second in Port Elizabeth. We played bonds when it travels (mind you having spent 4 really well and outscored them by 2 tries to 1 years sitting on a bus to Wales every fortnight but we had 2 further tries disallowed and Percy throughout the winter in the early years of the Montgomery had a field day with the boot. Celtic League, I’m not entirely sure about that South Africa is a tough place to Tour and rugby one). From a rugby perspective, playing is a hugely important part of the sporting culture opposition you know nothing about and but once you get used to the intensity, the learning that your basic skills are sufficiently games are not much different from anywhere honed to be able to hold your own in any else. company does wonders for confidence, World Cups are a bit like Tours and I was lucky especially for a side coming together pre- enough to do 5 in all, 4 at U19 level and the season for the first time. After these trips you big one in 2007. They were all great should expect to get off to a fast start when the experiences but there is a fundamental season proper begins. difference from going abroad with a School In 1998 I was an assistant coach on Scotland’s team where it’s great to win but defeat is not a unsuccessful trip to Australia and Fiji and in disaster - with the National team it’s only about 2000 went to New Zealand with the U18s. winning. Of course there is plenty of fun to be During my 10 years of professional rugby there had along the way, but any professional coach were plenty of trips to play abroad but very few who says they enjoy every minute of their job tours as such. My first away trip in the Heineken has got to be lying because the pain of defeat Cup was with the Caledonia Reds to play Pau in can be excruciating and always seems more 1997. After the first 10 minutes we could have intense than the pleasure you get from winning. thrown the towel in, such was the gulf in class. There will be many tales to tell when you get As far as I’m concerned, the 15 years of back (not all of them about rugby) and I look professional rugby in Scotland has been about forward to hearing some of them. You will nothing more than trying to close the gap. At remember these forever and make friendships the start of the pro-era Scotland were on the with teammates and opponents that will also receiving end of some huge defeats with 30, 40, stand the test of time. I would like to wish the 50 and even 60 point drubbings being team all the very best both in South Africa and commonplace. Slowly but surely we have reined beyond. Frank Hadden was Master in Charge of rugby at Merchiston for 14 years between 1983 and 1997, before entering professional coaching first as Assistant Coach of Caledonian Reds in 1997 and then coach of Edinburgh Gunners (now Edinburgh Rugby) in 2000. As Scottish National Coach between 2005 and 2008 he twice led the team to Calcutta Cup wins, in 2005 and 2008. He is largely responsible for Merchiston’s standing in Scottish rugby and here he reflects on his early days as a school coach and compares touring with a school team with touring with Scotland. 5 TOUR ITINERARY Wednesday 30th July Depart Edinburgh 6h00 via Amsterdam to Cape Town On arrival transfer to Southern Sun Cape Sun Hotel in Cape Town for six nights’ accommodation Thursday 31st July Morning: Training; Afternoon: Charity work at Baphumelele Orphanage Friday 1st August Morning: Coach tour of the CAPE PENINSULA, taking in the spectacular scenery via Chapman’s Peak to Hout Bay from where you could take a boat trip to Duiker Island Seal Colony.