Day 9 - Match day 3 vs St George’s College

The overnight storm system had blown away by the time morning came and the squad assembled after a much needed lie in to travel to St George’s Quilmes, the home of JP for over 20 years where he worked as a house master and PE teacher. The journey was quick and we arrived at a beautiful campus and were soon ready for training. An hour to iron out a few issues from the previous games was well spent and the squad went for an early lunch with our hosts. One or two players were unavailable for the match due to minor sprains and illness (nothing serious thankfully) and JP picked a young starting team for the first third. The boys came roaring out of the blocks and were soon on the scoreboard - excellent handling creating space for Max Blacklock to demonstrate his electric footwork and score in the corner. Straight from the restart we attacked again and made more yards out wide. A lovely kick through panicked the St George’s defence into a rushed clearance and Danny Troup attacked from the return, beating several defenders before releasing Freddie Riddle. One brilliant dummy later and Freddie was diving in at the corner to double our lead. Andrew Cadzow -playing at full back scored a third try on the stroke of half time to make the score 15-0 at the break. Numerous changes were once again made at the break in play, but the second third performance was equally as good. A new desire and work rate was noted and, although no more scores were added during this period, the team defended with bravery to ensure they took the 15 point lead into the final third. A strong lineup took the field for the final third with some of the senior players making their first contributions of the match, however, it was St George’s who struck first with a well taken try. The team responded well and an excellent try from Elliot Drysdale and a second for ‘the poacher’ Freddie Riddle made the game safe. This was the performance of the tour so far and real signs of improvement were evident. Campbell Swanson was the outstanding back on the field and Mark Blair won that accolade for the forwards. We had an enjoyable presentation with our hosts where Gordon MacNeill gave the captains speech in Spanish before the players set off with their hosts (in very large cars!) for a 2 night billet. Tomorrow sees the squad embark on a city tour of Buenos Aires where the boys will see all of the notable sights in the city including La Boca - Mr Palacios as a River Plate supporter might not enjoy this bit - the Recoletta cemetery and the famous balcony where Eva Braun delivered her speech to the Argentinian people.