Caldy U16’s enjoyed a successful five-day tour to South West France. A party of 24 boys set out and thoroughly enjoyed the experience of playing against the cream of French rugby.

Having arranged a fixture with a ‘village’ side, Saint Suplice, it transpired they were the U18 South of France champions and had three internationals in their side. Little did Caldy know that players travelled from all over the Toulouse region to play for them. The game started at a fantastic pace and Saint Suplice scored three tries in ten minutes to take a 19-0 lead. The skills of Saint Suplice and their adventurous Gallic style were gradually brought under control by heroic Caldy tackling. As the first half wore on Caldy fought their way back into the game against players two years their senior and at half time the score remained 19-0. In the second half Saint Suplice introduced players the same age as the Caldy team and the game swung in Caldy’s favour. Having scored two tries through excellent rugby Caldy were within inches of scoring a third try with 15 minutes to go. Saint Suplice responded by reintroducing their older players but by now reputations counted for little and Caldy continued to dominate. The game ended with a scoreline of 19 -10 to Saint Suplice but Caldy deservedly won the plaudits of the crowd and went on to enjoy the excellent hospitality of their hosts.

On the Sunday Caldy took part in a tournament in Albi that involved 32 teams from across Europe. Academy teams from clubs such as Toulouse, Castres, Narbonne, Monteferrand and Beziers took part together with teams from such far flung places as Latvia and Romania. In the morning teams played in groups of four with the afternoon groupings based on the success in the morning. After a successful morning the Caldy boys found themselves in the elite competition with seven of the best teams in France. Playing at a fantastic sports stadium with a large crowd in the stand Caldy won 1, drew 1 and narrowly lost against the hosts Albi. This secured Caldy second place in their group and a play off against Montferrand. By then Caldy were ravaged with injuries with only 17 boys fit enough to go on the pitch but character told and Caldy won the play off 7-0 to come third in the tournament.

All the boys performed magnificently and represented Caldy and the Wirral with great style and courage. The Caldy tour party consisted of: Jon Kirk, Greg Lyon, Tom Cockerham, Dave Cockerham, Graham Edge, Will Selby-Milic, Sam Spencer, Graham Skalley, Rick Stevenson, Ben Clarke, Peter Kendall, Tom Edwards, Ewan Lamont, Richard Freeman, Chris McGlory, Alex Davis, Liam Devaney, Andy Humphries, Chris Evans, Andy Jones, Steff Courtney, Mike Smith, Jon Winstanley and Adam Duncan.