The boys opened the tournament against the hosting side on the main field and played a fantastic match scoring a great try through scrum half charlie Johnson. After a gruelling encounter, the team lost by just one try but took a lot from the match in terms of experience and tempo. As there were a number of Rugby Academy’s in the pool, the standard was very high and the team really had to up their game to compete with the well drilled local sides. They did just that and scored some electric tries through Sean Hughes, Charlie Johnson and Owen Lloyd. In their way they disposed of a local Thai team and a touring side from Sri Lanka playing free flowing rugby and defended superbly through Espartaco Gonzalez and Richard Trinder who regularly put in enormous tackles taking down anyone who dared cross them.

The boys made it to the Plate Final which was a fantastic achievement in itself and came up against a very physical Thai side. After falling quickly behind by two tries the boys re - grouped and hit back hard with two tries of their own demonstrating an awesome showing of skill and speed by both the backs and the forwards to record the best try of the tournament. In the end, they lost by a conversion (2 points) but still walked away with their heads high claiming 4^th spot overall in which was their first ever tournament.

It was a great experience had by all and it will surely provide the boys with a wealth of experience to go on and improve and challenge themselves both here in Shanghai and further a field. Captain James Shepherd also got lucky and was presented the 4^th place trophy by Ex – South African Rugby Captain Bobby Skinstad. A memory I’m sure he will cherish for a while. Congratulations to all on what was a very successful Rugby Trip.