Our first day in Brazil and what a day it was! The blazing sun raised the spirits of the camp and also the heat gave us an ample opportunity to dry out our clothes and other belongings.

    The day started off for the rugby squad with a light training sessions with the local Charrua rugby lads. A great sense of friendship and thankfulness was exerted by all and new friendships were formed, with people breaking the language barrier the language and using gestures never seen before.

    Meanwhile, the football squad spent the morning in the care of professional coaches from the local football legends, Internacional. After being put through their paces in the morning, we had a great experience of actually walking on the hallowed turf of Club Internacional. What a great scene to top off what has been a successful tour of the grounds. We got to sit in the dug out, walk down the tunnel and practiced our diving on the carpet-like turf from the very kind permission of the club’s head groundman. Later we ate in the players canteen, where we saw the faces of many of Brazil’s up and coming stars.

    The last task of the day was a local friendly between the football squad and a college known as De Aplicacao. The footballers battled on after an exhausting day and managed to salvage a draw, with George Coyle socring a screamer to end the match 2-2.

 

What a day and what a start to our adventures in Brazil.

 

Written by Jordan Chard.