Paviors RFC

About 4 years Karl said to me that he had a mate in the Gibraltar RFU, they were having a new £35m rugby stadium with dormitories built in and wouldn’t it be great if we could go on tour. Since then, we’ve had covid, a cancelled tour at U12s, the stadium and dorms became a Nightingale hospital and then we came out the other side. Then last year we decided we could go on tour and in the planning meeting this idea was raised again. The parents there loved the idea so we started organising.

After working out if it was feasible to do it to an affordable budget, we decided that with a lot of dedication to fund raising we could manage it even though the dorm accommodation hadn’t yet been released to the public. Tina and the team worked on ideas, sponsors came forward and money was raised through various activities. At the same time Karl was running in the background getting flights booked and arranging logistics with the guys in Gibraltar. As I now understand, things over there work at Gib pace, but the plan came together and on 17th March 28 players, 6 coaches and one parent / logistics manager left Nottingham at 6.30am for a drive to Heathrow and our flight to the airport in Gibraltar where the main road in and out of the territory crosses the runway. Before we left Elliot was given a pink Tutu to wear, for wearing tour kit to the Southwell match the week before we left.

When we arrived at the Europa Point Sports Park we were met by their recently appointed Rugby Development Officer, Tom Read. Tom previously worked at Leicester Tigers and has refereed at Paviors. He showed us to the dorms (that had become available for us to use thankfully), then gave us a tour of the facility including squash courts, indoor cricket nets, huge sports hall and 2 well equipped gyms. However, after being built for about 4 years, the whole building has still not been handed over by the Gib Government so some elements, such as the gym, were not yet available for public use much to the disappointment of some of the lads.

30 pizzas were ordered, delivered by two mopeds, and quickly devoured (a sign of things to come) and the lads then headed out onto the floodlit pitch to run off a few calories with an improvised game of touch rugby / Gaelic football. At well after 10pm they were still running around while some of us relaxed after a long day of travel.

The pink Tutu (a running theme) was transferred to Ollie D for leaving his bag on the transfer bus from the airport. The Tutu’s turned up and were passed around on many occasions during the weekend for various acts of stupidity. As you can imagine with 14 and 15 year old boys, the daft acts were not hard to find. Some lads took some convincing to wear the tutu’s whilst others gravitated towards them and were found wearing them for no reasons we knew of. But we do pride ourselves on being an open and inclusive team, so crack on. A member of the opposition was even wearing one at the end of the first game and he took it back to Spain with him, never to be seen again.

Saturday morning and we stepped out of the accommodation (that is under the stands) and straight onto the pitch. We got to see the views in daylight for the first time, including from the clubhouse where we had breakfast, and they are wonderful, across to Spain on either side and over the Straits of Gibraltar to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.

The ground soon filled up for a day of rugby, starting with the GRFU Mini’s and Juniors who spread out over the pitches. This was followed by our first game against a mixed Club de Rugby Bahia 89’ and Gib team. The game was refereed by the GRFU Chairman, Steve, and was played in a great spirit by both sides. The score didn’t reflect how well the home team got stuck in and we offered to mix the teams up after half time but they were determined to carry on and work on their own team building. Highlights of the match were tries from Joseph and Toby. The downside was that Morgan was taken to hospital by Sean to have a broken clavicle dealt with.

Both teams enjoyed the game as shown by the smiles in the group team photo to finish.

After the lads played there was a Seniors game for Rock Scorpions who were short of players so up stepped our very own Dan Mangham. When they said they were short at either flanker or full back Dan was happy as he can play in either position. So, they gave him the Nr 15 shirt, and played him at Nr 8. Work that one out?! Rock Scorpions went on to win. GO ON DAN!!!

After this we gave the lads the chance to go on a short walk through a 400m long tunnel to a beach. Only 7 took up the offer, and some of those who stayed behind to rest regretted their decision as there was no more time in the itinerary for another beach visit.

Saturday evening was taken up with being fed by GRFU, watching the finale of the 6 Nations and then a game of touch on the floodlit pitch, kids ordering more food (they never stop)and finally to bed (if they ever slept).

Sunday started in a similar way to Saturday although we had the place to ourselves as no Mini’s were there. Paviors coaches were asked to help run some pre match warm ups and training and the local players were very appreciative and took a lot from it. 5 mins before KO we were asked if we could referee the match and this game was a lot more competitive. The opposition was similar, and included some of the same players bolstered by some players who were not available the day before. We were able to rotate our 28 players so everyone played a full game over the 2 days.

GRFU won the 1st quarter, scoring 2 good tries. After the first well needed water break, Paviors came back strongly in the 2nd quarter to take a good lead with a few quick tries from the big guns, but the Gib players kept fighting and putting in some great tackles.

The 2nd half was tight with Paviors scoring 2 tries to extend the lead including a blind side break from a maul for Jon to score. The final score was 53-12.

Sunday evening was our first trip into Gibraltar town. A walk into town took in some historical sights including the bay into which Lord Nelson’s body was bought in a barrel of brandy after the Battle of Trafalgar. The boys had a bit of free time in a very quiet town (Sunday evening on mother’s day) where they found some local eateries for more food, before we headed to The Chimney tapas restaurant for a very nice meal. They fed 35 of us brilliantly and the coaches and lads behaved themselves impeccably.

For our last day on Monday we packed up and left Europa Park, arranged for our luggage to be stored and then headed back into Gibraltar where 27 of us headed up the Rock via the cable car. Those not keen on heights or nursing injuries stayed in town for a relaxing morning.

At the highest point of the Rock that we could get to were treated with some fantastic views and couldn’t miss Gibraltar’s most famous inhabitants, the Barbary Macaques. It was difficult to tell who the monkeys were.

The brave ones amongst us also took to the Skywalk, a glass floored viewing platform.

And then a walk back down the slopes to the town, via the Wellington suspension bridge for a final feed before our transfer back to the airport and our trip home, arriving back in Nottingham at Midnight.

We were the first touring team to properly stay at Europa Park and so we were guinea pigs for GRFU. There are things that they will learn from our trip, and when they finally get full control of their part of the facility it will feel a lot more like a rugby clubhouse. But what a facility they have, in a fantastic location, with breath taking views, and I’m sure that Ricky, Tom and the rest of the team at GRFU will make it a brilliant place to play rugby for years to come. Thank you so much for hosting us. We had a brilliant time, and the kids will remember this trip for a very long time.

The lads represented the club brilliantly, got on really well with the friendly Gibraltar players, learnt more about their game, came out of their shells and grew closer as a group of friends and teammates.

A huge thank you to our organising team, especially Tina and Karl who put so much work into making the trip happen. Also, to our Sponsors of Tech Wright, Attenborough Doors, Prometeon and Arnold Clark Community Fund. And finally to the coaches (James, Sean, Dan, Ian, Greg and Andy) and Karl who gave up their time for the weekend as well as helping with fundraising and planning to make this wonderful time happen. I hope you’ve now almost recovered.