 |
| Travel stopovers |
 |
| Arriving in Dublin, at last! |
 |
| Aran Islands |
Thursday 20th / Friday 21st
Travelling, whilst exciting, does have its moments. The boys were very pleased to finally arrive at Galway after a 38 hour journey from Townsville via Brisbane, Dubai and Dublin.
Saturday 22nd
First day as tourists in Ireland, the group walked through Galway and took a bus to West Port before boarding a Ferry to Inis Mor, the largest of the Aran Islands. This small group of islands have wonderfully preserved ancient forts, ruins and farm land. The recommended form of transport whilst on the islands is by bicycle, so the group (coaches included) peddled their way around each of the tourist attractions culminating at the Dun Aonghasa Fort which sits impressively against 80m cliffs on the western side of the island.
Sunday 23rd
After a morning training session to sharpen their skills ahead of the first match on Monday, the group travelled to a farming region called the 'Burren', to visit the Connelly farm which has been worked in their family for over 300 years. Bert Connelly, guided the group around his farm and explained a little local history including farming methods, landscape features and even Irish superstitions (Fairies.....true, well some think so).
The next stop was the Cliffs of Moher, these impressive walls of limestone were simply amazing to stand at the top of. The group took tour mascot, 'Russel' the wombat, for a walk along the cliff tops and posed for a few photographs against the famous Irish landmark.
 |
| Cycling the Inis of Mor |
Returning to Galway that afternoon, students were introduced to their Colaiste Ignoed billet families who, very generously, provided our group with the valuable experience of a regular Galway/Irish family's lifestyle for two nights.
Monday 24th
 |
| Dun Aonghasa Fort |
Game day. Students met at Colaiste Ignoed for a pre-match warm up before a 2pm kick off. After the customary 'coin toss' and good luck handshakes, the match began with a TGS kick off. The intensity from both teams was immediately felt resulting in a tightly contested ball and no scores until the 18min mark of the 1st half (to Colaiste Ignoed). Shortly after, Grammar broke through the defense line themselves to even up the scores leading into the half time break.
The second half was a true arm wrestle, both teams producing very exciting rugby but neither side able to gain the 'upper hand' in the contest. One more try to each team fittingly resulted in a 15 all draw on the scoreboard. Strangely, 10 years ago Grammar toured to Galway and played Colaiste Ignoed, the score from that game - 17 all! It seems our two schools remain perfectly matched.
At the post match function, TGS Rugby and Tour Captain Juhee Kong thanked the Colaiste Ignoed team for their hospitality and presented the Captain and Coach with a TGS plaque, jersey and tour tie.
 |
| Cliffs at Dun Aonghasa |
 |
| Staff on edge! |
 |
| Bert - Irish Farmer, guiding the group around his family property |
 |
| Hike to the farm lookout |
 |
| Farm lookout over the Burren region |
 |
| Fairy Tree |
 |
| Candidates for the next Irish 'Boy Band' album cover |
 |
| Cliffs of Moher |
 |
| Boys introducing Russel to the Cliffs of Moher |
 |
| Captains pre-match briefing |
 |
| TGS team huddle before 'kick off' |
 |
| Baker breaking through the defense |
 |
| Early line-out win |
 |
| TGS scrum |
 |
| Henway pass |
 |
| Ormes kick |
 |
| Muller taking a few along with him |
 |
| Perkins on another drive through |
 |
| Backs - Linking the passes |
 |
| TGS and Colaiste Ignoed |
