Latest leg of the 6 Nations tour a party of 35 managed to get to Dublin after a very early start from Heathrow.

Day 1 was Check In - Viking Splash Tour - Relaxation then some food and diddly diddly music.

Day 2 Breakfast followed by a Gaelic Games experience day - Handball Gaelic Football and Hurling - would the Irish genes show through ?

A great time was had by all with new skills learnt by all (and some old skills remembered)

Thankfully there were no injuries

Friday morning saw the tour party split - some went to the Guinness Storehouse tour - whilst other visited Landsdowne Road Stadium

In the afternoon a short journey to Skerries RFC where we played our Tour Fixture - Panic set in to when it was realised that the Scrum Half didnt have a pair of boots - a quick dash to the sports shop and a few euros later the situation was rectified. (The boots were discovered in the bag back at Heathrow on Saturday Morning.)

The match was to be played under floodlights - with the opposition unknown we didnt know quite what to expect especially with the lack of sleep from the entire tour party.

Warm ups completed and we were set for 4 x 15 minute periods (this made it much easier to organise the substitutions)

The typical slow Chipstead start did not materialise the boys came out of the blocks all guns blazing.

Great rucking and Tackling - Team support - handling - it was all pretty much perfect.

After 15 minutes Skerries had barely got out of their half and it was 17-0 to Chipstead
(Tom Hag & Rob with the Trys and Rob with a conversion)

The second period saw Skerries come back into the game a bit more and their pressure paid off with a Score

17-7

Period 3 saw an increase in intensity from both teams with the tackles flying in from both sides

George scored a try converted by Rob with Skerries gaining one back

24-14

The final period saw some of the best play that I have ever seen from the Chipstead team - they were determined that Skerries were not going to score again and every time a Skerries player had his hands on the ball there was a Chipstead player knocking them back - often it was the same player making the hits time and time again (Eoin took out 3 Skerries ball carriers in the space of about 10 seconds)

two more scores in the final period from Rob and finally from Eoin - with one of the best handling moves I have seen from these lads meant the final score was

Skerries 14-36 Chipstead

Try Scorers:
Tom
Hag
Rob(2)
George
Eoin

Conversions
Rob (3)

The boys were dead on their feet but not one of them took a backwards step during the match. Every single lad contributed and did the
Shirt proud. In this form we would have beaten any team.

We then all retired to the bar for some Irish hospitality and to watch the Argentina v SA (It was amazing how many of the Chipstead Boys were supporting Argentina)

A massive thank you to Tom and all the guys at Skerries for the hospitality and organising the match for us.

Late night drive back to the hostel for an early start to get back to the airport.

Tour over - only 2 casualties (Keiran & Kevin decided to stay until the Sunday and fly back then - unfortunately the flight was cancelled due to the fog so they ended up coming back on the Ferry and train- that will probably be a fine on the next tour)

Well done to all the lads and parents for another wonderful tour.