16th Maroon Play Overseas

What excitement in the household Saturday morning and were off to Waiheke Island to Plays Rugby. We arrive downtown for the 9.l3Oa:n ferry crossing. One hour later we arrive at Matiatia - without losing anybody overboard - and make our way to a line of buses, but, Oh No! No bus for us, we were bundled into the back of a truck and taken to the local hayfield - beg pardon - football field, with goal posts that matched the lean of that famous tower.

The boys were sent off to a little shed to change while the parents watched what we thought was a 14th grade team warm up. Imagine our surprise when this team of Goliaths ran onto the field to play our little Davids. During one ruck our game 1itt1e fellows were swinging around the waist of one of the opposition team, but stil-1 they didn't give up, and ran in two beautiful tries before drawing the game 8-40.

We didn't see any of the Islanders apart from a quick invitation to grab a cup of tea, which we declined gracefully and retired to the beach for a leisurely lunch, which we had been warned to take with us. Upon enquiring as to the departure time of our 1llxury truck, we were informed by the driver that he wasn't going to take us back to the boat as he was Playing football, so we would have to wait till the 5pm ferry.

Not satisfied with this we finally found one obliging person, a friendly woman finally offered to drive us back in time for teh 2pm ferry.

All in all this was not one of the most memorable trips we have been on. The one redeeming feature of the day was the wonderful response from parents to accompany the boys. We had four fathers, five mothers, one older sister and even a grandmother all for 11 boys.

Thanks to these parents for their great company on an otherwise disappointing day.