Visiting the Joneses

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We managed to sneak a relative sleep-in this morning with an hour past our normal wake up time. It was extremely difficult to get everyone out of bed - even at 8:30 - but we rounded them up and had them down for breakfast. Definitely battle scarred and weary but still on a high from yesterday, they are looking forward to the next challenge.

Following breakfast we loaded up the bus - a rather protracted process as each room has to be checked and all the stuff left lying around has to be repacked! Next time we’re bringing a maid for each room! Despite all this we were underway just after 10 and heading for Wales at last. The first ceremony was to award the Dick of the day to Tim - very dubious grounds - and despite good evidence to suggest he was entirely in the right - the jury decided to punish him in a very cruel and unjustifiable manner. What goes around comes around boys!! We stopped for lunch at a road side services spot, still in England, and it wasn’t until shortly after 1 that we crossed the “border” into Wales and the land of leaks, daffodils and Joneses.

As we moved south the weather got progressively better and by the time we passed Cardiff it was actually a sunny day. The forecast for the next 3 days is more of the same and so things are looking hopeful! We found the hotel courtesy of the GPS and everyone was extremely pleased to see it was a huge step up from the last residence. The staff were expecting us and had everyone checked in quickly and we had organised laundry and dinner before the bus engine had been switched off!

The boys quickly changed into training kit and we headed down to the local park for a training session to work on some of the weaknesses of our last game. Top of the list were defensive lines and playing in the wind for the backs, whilst the forwards worked on the ruck and lineout areas. It was nice to train in some sunshine but the biting wind kept the temperature well down. We managed to squeeze in 90 minutes before we decided it was better to get the boys back into the warmth of the hotel and we were back home by 5:45.

After a quick shower (and an ice bath for Collins??) the boys organised their laundry into bags and it was dispatched - I think some were getting a bit low on jocks and socks so ti was a good opportunity to get them back on track. Dinner was served in the hotel - they are looking after us very well - and we settled down to watch the champions League match between Man United and Bayer Munich.
Chris produced some of the video footage of the tour at half time and we had a short but very useful video analysis session looking at some of the weaknesses that we’d been talking about at training. The boys were in bed just before 10 - they seem to be bouncing back form the aches of this morning but we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

The plan is to head out in the morning for a paintball session - dads V boys - before back here for lunch and then off to the game. We all expect it will be a huge step up again from what we’ve seen - but these boys will certainly be up for the challenge.

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