Friday morning was free but on tour there is no such thing as free time and we hit the training ground early to go over everything we had learned so far. After nearly two hours of a morning session we were joined by Archie, a friend of one of our players , Joe.
We then headed back down to the Rec for our second day with the Bath community coaches where we we lucky enough to be joined by Jonathan Evans one of Baths first team players who took some people of the session. Today was all about handling skills and finding the open man which is good when Evans was last years European top passer. After Evans gave the boys a question and answer session where the best question of the day must have been "have you ever cried on a rugby pitch" which was answered with a resounding "No".
After a quick bite to eat at a world champion pizza parlour (highly recommended by all of the coaching staff) it was back to the Rec for the experience of a life time.
The boys at the Roman Bath Museum
The boys proudly wearing their red KPMG Gibraltar Rugby Minis tops took to the field to be part of the Guard of Honour as Bath and Saracens took the pitch for a Premiership match. The boys even appeared on national TV as the game was televised live on BT Sports.
The fun didn't stop there as the hard fought match throughly enjoyed by the boys (and parents) for whom this was their first taste of professional rugby up close and personal in Baths small Rec stadium came to half time and the boys took to the pitch again. This time they took part in the high ball challenge. This involved a machine shooting rugby balls high and in to the air (just imagine an international level Gary Owen and that's the height we are talking about). Though difficult our lads didn't embarrass themselves in front of the capacity crowd of just over 13,000 and made a few spectacular catches. Bath eventually lost to the dominant Saries but nothing could dampened the spirits of they team who were now in hyper mode and all fired up for the next day's match which would be the culmination of the trip and a chance to test out everything they had learned.
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