Day 6 travelling day and Day 7 match day 2 vs St Matthews

We left Mendoza with heavy hearts after 3 fabulous days, to travel back to Buenos Aires for a week. So far our flights have all been delayed and the one from Mendoza didn’t disappoint and we were left twiddling our thumbs for an hour and a half. We landed in BA and headed straight to our hosts for 2 days, St Matthews College in the north of the city. A training session ironed out a few of the issues from the first game and we said goodbye to the boys who were all showing signs of nerves with the impending exam results looming the following day. Day 7 started with good news for the tour party as the results were on the whole extremely positive. The group set off for an enjoyable boat trip on the Tigre delta and then lunched with yet more meat. We arrived at St Matthews College for the game in good spirits and hoped for improvements in key areas of our performance. The first third was dominated by EA with some excellent play too often being undone by a sloppy carry or pass. St Matthews took the lead against the run of play, but the team showed resilience to bounce back with an outstanding team try, finished off by Coinneach Petrie to level the scores. The second third was not good as many changes led to a disjointed performance. St Matthews scored 2 unconverted tries and could have scored more without poor handling. The final third was once again extremely encouraging as the boys came flying out of the blocks determined to win the game. Tries from Thomas Adams and Charlie Pargeter, both converted by Cameron Turner gave the team a much needed 21-17 win. Charlie Pargeter was voted a stand out man of the match followed closely by Mark Blair and notable performances from Patrick McCormack and Tom Crossman were also highlighted. We have a long way to go, but this tour is starting to bond this squad together and hopefully we can keep moving forward. Tomorrow sees the squad become Gauchos for the day at an Estancia in San Antonio de Areco.