Day 8 - George

A strenuous morning training session to prepare for Shiplake’s first-ever entry into a South African rugby 7's tournament tomorrow. The boys had to get used to the very different demands of the game and the front row in particular found out how exhausting it could be.

Team captain and birthday boy James Riley’s strategy for the event is to “win every game! Attack, attack, attack and create chaos”. Sorted.

From midday Shiplake was kindly entertained by Marek Lapham’s family who were staying in a stunning beach house in a nearby town called Wilderness. It was the perfect opportunity for the team to have some down time and relax in the sun, body surf, play some beach touch rugby, bury their team mate in the sand (Toby Stevens) and throw the fully-clothed birthday boy into the sea.

We were also incredibly fortunate to sight a small pod of whales mating just 100 metres from the shore. An amazing experience.

A huge thank you to Ashleigh Lapham for hosting all 29 of us.

Day 7 - Villiersdorp to George

Early start to begin the six-hour coach trip between Villiersdorp and George. Travel attire has been relaxed since the plane journey – no 1s were replaced with Hollister Tees, hoodies and headphones.

A few stops on the way for bathroom breaks and mass purchasing of Biltong, before arriving at Oudtshoorn (one hour from George) for a guided tour of the Cango Caves – an incredible, 5km system of caves with 150 million-year-old stalactites/mites. In the largest cave, a former concert venue, the Shiplake boys (and fellow tourists) sang a hearty Happy Birthday song to Mr Cane-Hardy while the tour guide gave him a congratulatory hug.

While some boys spent time admiring the delicate, icicle-like limestone formations, others (Piers Chen) said it would be “so satisfying to bring a sledge hammer in here”. Different strokes...

Then it was on to Cango Ostrich farm to learn how the birds fed, mated and incubated, followed by a hilarious display of ostrich-riding skills from James Riley, Tom Jones, Nick Arbuckle, Jack Madden and Jack Forrest (there was a weight limit of 75kg). Prize for best rider went to Jack Forrest who remained saddled throughout while Nick Arbuckle won ‘best wipeout’ after taking the bird down to the dirt with him.

It was there the team bought its super-butch tour mascot, Adam (named after our legendary coach driver).

Arrived in George at about 7pm where the billet hosts were waiting to bring the boys home for a hot supper.  

Day 5 & 6 - Villiersdorp / Game 2

Chill-out day yesterday to relax and prepare for today’s big game. After the morning training session Shiplake divided its time between the Beverly Hills-esque Franschhoek, where Piers Chen joined the tour dutifully dressed in his no 1s, and then Stellenboch.

Red-meat-heavy Team Meal in the evening.

Pre-game “prison” breakfast of cold scrambled eggs and wieners this morning. Character-building. Four members of the team in the dog house after shaving “try stripes” through their eyebrows and staff needing to search village shops for make-up to fill in the gaps. Could only find black eyeliner so one player looked convincingly like Bert from Sesame Street.

Excellent morning training session followed by lunch at the hostel of bobotie (curried meat and fruit dish not dissimilar to moussaka), pumpkin fritters and sweet apricots, with ice cream in a peanut sauce for dessert. Boys were perhaps a little perplexed by the flavours but the meal offered plenty of sugar/energy to be burned in the afternoon match.

A brilliant game ensued with a 17-31 win to Shiplake.

Team captain Jimmy Wright said: “Really pleased with the result. It was a great opportunity to use our backs and we used our size to dominate a smaller team. I’m particularly pleased with the set plays that went according to plan in the middle stint of the game.

“For the next match we’ll aim to improve our alertness in the first ten minutes of play but there were some outstanding performances from Max Nutman who really stepped up and defended well, George Davis had a blinder and Jack Madden made some cracking try-saving tackles.”

A well-earned team night out in Stellenbosch to celebrate the win.