U20 Tour Diary & Wrapup at U19 Girls Rugby Blog

Bryn Chivers let me know that the U20’s had a tour diary, but limited internet access made it hard to post anything…so its all just been posted at the U19 Girls Rugby Blog. I have re-posted it here:

U20 WNT Update
Sorry this is a week of posts at once but we lost the wifi at the Ingwnyama Lodge for the last we
ek of the tour.

Sunday June 29th
Breakfast and packing.
It’s amazing how much you can buy at a rural African market and luggage space was at a premium. Kayla Morisoli set a record for the most carry on with three bags and an armful of presents. Mallory Ives had purchased a wooden bowl the size of a large satellite dish, and was reveling in the challenge of getting it on and off three flights. We took the last team pictures and headed off…….to the mall, hey there was still time to shop before the flight. =)

Saturday June 28th
Game day and everyone was nervous. Started the day with a walk through of the game plan. Started at one end of th
e field and went through every scenario, discussed every decision, the what, the when, the why, the who. Everyone ate a light lunch and then it was off to the Nelspruit Rugby Stadium for the last game of the tour. We’ve got used to the police escorts =). There were two games as curtain raisers and there was probably 1,000 people in the crowd at game time. There was still a game in progress when the team jogged down the sideline to the in-goal where they were going warm up. The PA Announcer made a very big deal of the entrance and as the players got to the far end of the stand there was a huge round of applause with shouting, clapping and horn blowing from the fans…….the Mpumalanga Rugby Unon had bussed in the girls from the township we visited on Monday.

The Game – We won 21-17 and the game report will follow.

The banquet afterwards was held at the Ingwenyama Lodge and was a lot of fun. Despite the physical nature of both games the teams really liked each other and this showed at the banquet. The SA women sing this wonderful song before games and they gave the team one last performance at the banquet. The USA women could not get it out of their heads all week and would attempt to replicate it despite not knowing any of the words……and not being able to sing. The food was as interesting as ever and served right on the table. They cover a table with a clear plastic film and put the food right on the table without serving plates. The players had no idea of what they were eating but knew it was all very good. The favorite food of the players was cook-sisters, a small, syrup filled, incredibly sweet, twisted pastry.
The banquet ended with the traditional trading of spare kit. The USA players had a lot of old kit from previous events (and previous sponsor) and were able to get some really good stuff from the SA women. Lots o
f practice shirts, shorts, t-shirts, hats and one or two jackets were acquired by the USA players.

The South Africans left and the team took a moment to reflect on the win and then it was off to the phones to call home with the news.

Friday June 27th
Still no internet service except for a very slow dial up in one of the offices so updates may not get posted till we get home. It was a two practice day today as we again spent a lot of time working on ball possession and controlling the breakdown. The Jersey Ceremony was emotional. We can only dress twenty-two of the twenty-five players for the international games and it was tough on the players who missed out.

Thursday June 26th
So the team has had
two days off to go sightseeing and shopping, and shopping, and shopping =)
Wednesday we visited the Sabie River Valley area of Mpumalanga. The canyon is one of the largest in the world and gave the players a chance to see some of the incredible waterfalls that drop hundreds of feet from the rim of the canyon to the river below. The tour also included a tri
p to the old gold mining town of Pilgrims Rest where the players got to see and hear about a piece of South Africa’s history and haggle over prices in the local market….everyone got what they thought was a steal but I’m sure the folks at the market thought they robbed the players blind.

Thursday started with a 5:00 am wake up call so that the team could be at Kruger National Park by 6:00 am. The players traveled in four open vehicles driven by very knowledgeable local guides. Each of the groups went a separate way and met up for meals at two of the lodge areas within the park. The players were able to spot lion, elephant, giraffe, rhino, hippo, Zebra, crocodile, water buffalo, kudu, impala and a lot of other animals not found at home. One vehicle even saw a small group of Tsessebe that the guide had not seen in five years. The players spent eleven hours at Kruger National Park and all agreed it was an incredible experience. The team returned home at 6:30 pm and after dinner it was back to work as the players reviewed the tape of Tuesday’s game.

It was a fun tw
o days for the team and everyone needed the break.

Tuesday June 24th
Today the players had a morning practice and got a rest in the afternoon prior to the night game against the Mpumalanga Provincial Side. Sue and Tasha took some of the backs and forwards this
afternoon and worked on some indi
vidual stuff. The trip down to Nelspruit tonight was similar to Saturday with the
police blocking traffic all the way to the stadium. The crowd was a good size with probably five hundred people in the stands. We’ve had to share the Ingwenyama Sports Center with the Italy U18 boys and the local Currie Cup team, the Pumas. It’s been interesting as we always get the “A” field for practice despite it being the only one with rugby posts and the other teams are on the “B: field. So the curtain raiser for our game was the Italy U18’s v the provincial HS boys side with the Italian side running out easy winners. The players entered the stadium and the SA U20 Women were there to clap them on to the field, it was very sporting. As the game progressed you could hear chants of USA! USA! from the crowd and it turned out that the Pumas had shown up to support the team. The game ended 87-0 in favor of the U20 WNT and a report will follow. The banquet was nice and simple and a lot less formal than last Saturday.

Monday June 23rd
We started the day by going out to one of the townships to run a camp for
about 70 kids. It turned out to be a big event again. Police escort, the radio station broadcast from the event, coach and player interviews, it’s hard to explain how we are being treated. The kids were mostly all girls from the townships with a couple of boys in each group. The players had designed the drills and ran all of the practice themselves while the coaches wandered around answering questions from the local organizers, mostly about the structure of the game for women in the USA. The team finished by playing some semi-opposed stuff against each other just to demonstrate the speed of the game. They picked a couple of girls to join the team for a couple of plays and afterwards gave them each a piece of kit donated by the players. Going to one of the townships was an incredible experience and an eye opener for a lot of the players. People living in tiny buildings made from whatever they can find, “shops” made from salvaged wood where people sell whatever they can grow, and hundreds of kids who want to say hi. Incredible experience.

We finshed the day with a short practice and then dinner.

Saturday June 21st
We had a short practice this morning at a local high school that had three rugby fields including one in a stadium…..such a different world compared to rugby in the US. We got back to the lodge in time for lunch although the players and staff didn’t eat much as most of us have a bad case of intestinal distress form last night’s fish.

We boarded the bus for the game and found out that we have a police escort to the game……no kidding. Police cars out in front of the bus with lights on and sirens going as they stopped traffic at intersections and red lights so we could go through. It was surreal to be given this much attention. We arrived at the stadium and it was full of school children that had been bussed in for the game. Wonderful atmosphere.

We lost 12-23. See the match report.

The social after was interesting. Lot’s of speeches from representatives of the Local Rugby Union and South African Rugby who highlighted what a great event this was for the development of the women’s game in South Africa, Both teams really liked each other and they bonded immediately. Lots of singing and laughing.

The players have Sunday off.

**USA U-20 Women’s National Team Game 1 vs South Africa, go here.

**USA U-20 Women’s National Team Game 2 vs Developmental team, go here.

**USA U-20 Women’s National Team Game 3 vs South Africa, go here.

**Bryn Chivers gives an update on events, venues etc for upcoming U-20 WNT Events, go here.

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