The Magazine of St Aloysius' College • 'Men for Others' • Issue XLVII ...

senior school sport (cont'd)
and John Tobin (Year 11) made valuable contributions over
the course of the season. I would like to thank Coach Alex
To (SAC 2007) who provided strategy and structure for the
many individuals playing this sport for the first time.
Mr Mark Gair
MIC Volleyball
New Zealand Rugby Tour 2008
On 11 April, the last day of Term I forty-six rugby
players, five coaches and one physiotherapist
departed Sydney International Airport for the
capital of New Zealand, Wellington. Our aim was ten
days of intense rugby training and games to prepare
us well for the 2008 season. The players were touring
as two teams, an Opens Squad of senior boys, and a
Development Squad which was a mix of 15s, 16s and
some Opens players.
At the NZ Rugby Academy.
Wellington proved to be an ideal destination for a short
rugby tour. It is a small, beautiful city, very easy to navigate
and with their schools’ rugby of a high standard. There
Benjamin Shorter leads out the First XV at Silverstream.
was also the New Zealand International Rugby Academy,
started by ex-All Black, Murray Mexted, and staffed by an
expert panel of New Zealand provincial coaches. We
spent two days at the Academy.
We brought the warm weather with us when we flew
into Wellington on the Friday to begin our Tour. We settled
into our hotel, overlooking the city of Wellington. It was a
perfect location for either walking into the city or catching
buses to various venues around Wellington.
We began two days of a pre-season camp at the
grounds of Rongotai College; they were kind enough to let
us use their facilities and to provide the big game to end
our tour at the end of the week. On Monday we played
our first game against Hutt Valley High, a co-ed high school
of eighteen hundred students to the north of Wellington. It
proved a great start to the tour with the Development Squad
winning 71 – 0 and the Opens team victorious with a 41
– 5 scoreline.
For the next two days we attended The International
Rugby Academy where we underwent a specialised
programme of skills development with some of the best
provincial coaches in New Zealand. It was a wonderful
opportunity for the entire squad, both players and coaches,
Opens face the Rongotai First XV Haka.
St Aloysius’ College
A Jesuit School for Boys _ Founded 1879
aloysiad / page 28