Thursday 6th Oct

Daily bloggers: Rory Wood & Richie Craig

This was the first day the tour party had off from their trainers, which was a delight to all members. After the disappointment of the previous day the boys were keen to take their minds away from the rugby field. A few of the boys went to Sydney to do some more shopping, whilst others headed to the golf course to see who was talking a great game and who was the dark horse on the golf course. The golf was won by Stuart 'the bandit' Knight who managed to convince everyone to give him a shot a hole because 'apparently' he hadn't played for over a year! Perhaps after his concussion from the previous day his memory wasn't functioning to its full potential.

The shoppers returned exhausted from all the sales that were on offer, thoroughly enjoying their time away from RAAF Glenbrook. The day ended with a roll call at 2100hrs for all players and a brief for the coming plans ahead. It was a much needed day of rest but now it’s back to business as usual with the prospect of a bruising encounter with the Australians in the quarter finals.

Wednesday 4th Oct

 

Duty Boys: James Bardgett and John Hall

Wednesday morning and a sunny day in Sydney for Gala day 2.

Following a brief breakfast and some able support to the duty boys from Nathan 'Badger Teeth' Jones and Dai 'White noise' Carey the squad were on the bus ready for trip to the T G Millner field in Eastwood to face New Zealand. After a bit of a false start at a random Sydney park, we finally made it to the pitch; thanks coach driver!

The match started following a rapid version of the national anthem and the infamous Haka to which we all fronted up. It is a great experience to face the Haka for real and one that none of the boys will never forget.

Unfortunately the match didn't quite meet everyone's expectations and New Zealand ran out winners by 51-0. The score certainly doesn't reflect the patterns of the game or the effort of all the player, but the clinical nature of the Kiwis was obvious.

 

The match however, was not without incident. Stu '30 seconds' Knight was out cold without touching the ball and was subsequently carried off within 30 seconds. Fortunately for him the super fast Australian ambulance reacted in twice the time Stu was on the pitch and helped Stu to realise that he wasn't in England or New Zealand! He's fine but his pride has taken a bit of a dent.

 

After an afternoon of rugby in the sun and watching Australia (our The coaching staff have given the lads some free time to convalesce after watching a decent Army side beat the French Defence Force, good times all round. The day was topped off with a sing a long of the squad song, a canny version of the Home and Away theme tune.

 

 

Tuesday - 4th Oct

 

Daily bloggers: Josh McNally & Johny Walmsley

 

Another day of average weather in what is supposed to be sunny Australia. A select number of backs travelled to Penrith Panthers Rugby League ground to do their hair and tell each other how good they are! An hour later the rest of the squad turned up to receive the team announcement from the coaching staff. A very lethargic team run prompted a stern word from the gaffa, sparking the team into life. When the team finished a well improved team run through, it was called a day and moved onto team photos with Tug Wilson discovering a major fear of heights.

 

Presenting a shirt to the Panthers new skipper Luke Lewis, with the Boss describing the pitch with every adjective possible. A coach trip back to RAAF Glennbrook, the squad were stood down for rest of day and half the squad went down shopping to Penrith. House of grifindoor decide to explore their feminine side, staying in watching chick flicks. Chris Davis decided to experiment with hair removal cream, with catastrophic outcomes. A Team meeting to calm pre-match nervs ends another productive day.

Monday 3 Oct - Bondi Beach

Good morning from Matt Brougham and Reggie Reid.  Monday has been a very busy day for the squad after being let off the leash for the first time last night.  The day started with an intense training session at Penrith RUFC.  Not the best start for young, but old looking prop Tim Coughlin as he forgot his boots!  The session involved a bit of a blow out including body position at the breakdown with extra rucking thrown in to the mix in order to separate the men from the boys and the backs from the forwards! 

After a quick turnaround and some food from the mess the squad waited for Flt Lt Nathan Jones (standard) as an afternoon session was planned for Bondi Beach.  With hundreds of onlookers, most of them wondering why we were running around in shorts and t-shirt on the windiest day of the year, the squad were put through their paces in defensive organization and attacking structure.   A relatively short session, but equally as tough on the legs due to the sand.  After another short wait for Nathan Jones we squad headed to local Westfield in order to be fed and watered and have a look around the shops that only Donald Trump and Lord Sugar could afford to shop in!

A quiet night was had by all with a little rugby catch up on the TV and a few more hours spent on Facebook!  

 Speak to you again soon.  Matt and Reggie

Sunday 2nd Oct

Our very keen medical support staff, WC Clive Monkley (Dr) & Sqn Ldr Peter Lilly (Sports Therapist) 

Bloggers: Dave Curry & Nathan Jones.

After a good win yesterday we had a light morning session planned for the field at RAAF Glenbrook.  Due to yet more rain the session was changed to the gym.  Our token PTI, Dave Hankinson took us through some stretching exercises and we then has 40 mins of light weights.  After this it was to the outdoor pool for a dip in the rain.  Chris Davies described this experience as a mild heart attack!  After a short 15 mins we went for showers then lunch.

After lunch it was a players meeting in the TV room to pay up fines collected so far.  A very costly session for some conducted by the main enforcer Dai Carey.  Once this was finished the squad was given the afternoon off.  Although the squad was given the option to have a drink we had a few waters and rested watching a DVD and had an early night not wanting to spoil the fitness gained.

RAF v Papua New Guinea

Game breakdown:

Starting Line Up:
Prop:                     Nick Kibble                                     Scrum Half:             Anthony Gartland
Hooker:                Rhys Williams                               Fly Half:                    Rory Wood
Prop:                     Dave Manning                               Left Wing:               Nathan Jones
Lock:                      Josh McNally                                 Centre:                     Jimmy Bardgett 
Lock:                      Al Blewitt                                       Centre:                      Johnny Walmsley
Flanker:                Jonathon Hall                               Right Wing:             Lloyd Owen
Flanker:                Richie Craig                                   Full Back:                 James Reid
No 8:                      Dave Carey

Replacements:                 Dave Curry, Tim Coghlan, Matt Brougham, Lance Tallett, Gareth Hopkins, Karl Craven, David Hankinson 

 Time      Occurrence         Description                                        Person                                  Running Score

03.40     Try                          Push over by the forwards    Al Blewitt                           5-0
12.30     Try                                                                                    Nathan Jones                   10-0
27.30     Try                                                                                    Lloyd Owen                      15-0
28.30     Conversion                                                                   Rory Wood                        17-0
29.00     Yellow card           Repeated infringements     No 10 PNG
32.00     Try                                                                                   Jimmy Bardgett                22-0
38.00     Try                                                                                   Johnny Walmsley            27-0
Half time
                Replacements                                               Nick Kibble (Off) Tim Coghlan (On)
                                                                                           Ant Gartland (Off) Gareth Hopkins (On)
                                                                                           Rhys Williams (Off) Dave Curry (On)     
46.30     Try                                                                                   Johnny Walmsley              32-0
53.00     Try                                                                                    Dave Carey                         37-0
54.00     Conversion                                                                  Rory Wood                           39-0
                Replacements                                        Johnny Walmsley (Off)  Lance Tallett (On)
                                                                                                Dave Carey (Off) Karl Craven (On)
55.00     Try                                                                                   James Reid                         44-0
57.00     Try                                                                                   Lloyd Owen                        49-0
58.00     Try                                                                                   Lance Tallett                      54-0
59.00     Conversion                                                                  Rory Wood                         56-0
67.00     Try                                                                                   Karl Craven                         61-0
70.00     Replacement                                                Dave Manning (off) Nick Kibble (On)
71.00     Try                                                                                   Nick Kibble                         66-0
75.00     Try                                                                                   Tim Coghlan                       71-0
76.00     Conversion                                                                  Rory Wood                         73-0
Final Score:

RAF    73                   Papua New Guinea           0            

Rory Wood taking a penalty

Some unexpected 'home' support was most welcome!

30 Sep - Day 4

Bloggers of the day - Alfie Myles & Ben Gilpin

The day started with another glorious breakfast in the Glenbrook combined mess, before making our way down to Penrith RFC, which must have seemed like a home from home for Johnny Walmsley as we were greeted by a burnt out car upon arrival. Training got off to a great start with another of Hankinson’s ‘Oz aerobics style’ warm ups comprising of a number of pelvic thrusting movements. The team stepped up the intensity with a very drawn out morning, with backs fine tuning strike moves, defensive patterns, restarts and their hairstyles for tomorrow, whilst the forwards, as usual, just hugged each other all morning. During the team run through the decision was made to go shirts v skins. This in hindsight was a bad call from the management as Tallett, once again, displayed his high waisted shorts tactic in an attempt to cover his flabby lower rig. The afternoon consisted of a trip to Penrith plaza, which was cut short by two and a half hours as Hankinson had again requested more pelvic thrusting! Tonight’s team meeting has got everyone up for the challenge that lies ahead and we are very confident of producing the goods.