Day 02 - Tue 24 Jul

Short stop-over in Hong Kong

. . . a straight forward flight to a dramatic arrival at Hong Kong for our very short Tuesday - worse for Tim Gue, celebrating a very short birthday who we bumped into in the HK transit lounge. Quick turnaround and back onto an again full plane for the second - 9 hour - leg to Sydney.   Twenty one hours on a plane certainly feels like 21 hours!  Still, the cabin crews seemed chuffed with their tour wristbands - even the crew scheduled to bring Gerrard et al back from Hong Kong tomorrow. Only another 9 hours to listen to Passie moan that his TVs not working!

Day 03 - Wed 25 Jul

Arrive @ 0630, drop off luggage at the Hotel Menzies in Sydney, then training, chill out and dinner @ Phillips Foote.

Arrived on time with excellent views of downtown sights to  Sydney's warmest day of the year to date.  The squad then had a gentle stroll to the training park for a "cobweb blowing away" session.  A stop in Circular Quay for lunch, and a return stroll to the hotel to check in, hit the showers, the pool, the shop, and the internet cafe. Evening meal in the Rocks on a day that's seen the squad attracting a lot of interest from the locals, including the videos shot by Japanese tourists outside the hotel, and shouted banter from Sydney's cabbies, and making a good impression.

Day 04 - Thu 26 Jul

Sydney city tour, then lunch @ Bondi before training @ Easts RC and a free evening (and the first test of the curfew).

First brekkie on tour - well up to the challenge of satisfying Messrs Buchanan, Maidment, and Susman (not to mention the coaches! - Are you sure vegemite and peanut butter taste good together Dave?) - let's hope it's a sign of things to come! Tour round Sydney this morning with plenty of photo stops around the bays of Sydney Harbour. Stopped off at a warm - for UK summer - and sunny Bondi beach for lunch and an impromptu game of beach rugby - using tour mascot "Churchill" as a ball! Before heading off to Easts Rugby Club for the first serious training session ready for Saturday's games at Joeys - including practicing the various Aussie tour variations.  Back to base via the Olympic Village. Still attracting interest from our hosts, and Ben's struck up a "friendship" with former All Black John Gallagher who's staying at the same hotel.

Day 05 - Fri 27 Jul

Leave Menzies for a trip to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains for abseiling with High 'n' Wild, lunch in Leura, then transfer to the Hotel Ibis in Darling Harbour

Okay - now we know it is winter!  Six a.m. for brekkie and on the coach at 7 for the trip to the Blue Mountains.  Some of the guys obviously didn't believe the advice to "rug up" and they're abseiling in a sweltering 6 degrees and howling gale.  Meanwhile I'm in the warm coach having had a nice flat white updating this! Abseiling done - and a trip down the world's steepest railway - and now we're relocated into our second hotel.  Sitting here in my room updating the diary the view across Darling Harbour is pretty impressive in the dark!

Day 06 - Sat 28 Jul

Matches 1 & 2 vs. St Joseph's College

Game on!  The tour got underway today with our two games against St Joseph's College being among the 37 matches played at the school over the course of the day! great to see our travelling support too all together on the touchline. St Joseph's U16D 0 - 60 Sussex XV The tour kicks off with a bang as we score the first try almost straight from the kick off and keep the points flowing steadily for 70 minutes. Squad: Manzi (1t), Diprose, Susman 2t), Bradley, Davis, Munns, Duffell (1t), Martin, Keshavarz (Capt.1t), Selby (1t), Bowen (1t), Harvey-Brown, Sealy (1t), Overgage (1t), Braithwaite (1t, 5c), Church, Purssey, Ball (1t) and Goddard. St Joseph's Senior 4th XV 0 - 21 Sussex XV Five minutes in and we learn something about Aussie variations that wasn't on any website - apparently you're not allowed to use your feet to move a player on the wrong side of a ruck - no matter how "gentlemanly" you are about it. Ten minutes in and the first blood-bin - looks like Nik's pre-KO "inspirational chat" might have had as much affect on Joeys as Sussex! Squad: Maidment, Drage, Buchanan, Gue, Edgell, Pass, Lilburne, Wallace, Hallam (Capt.), Chisholm (3p,1c), Hinojosa (1t), Smith, Wilson 1t), Barber, Levene, Tudor, Forrester. After the games the tourists had a chance to savour the atmosphere building for Joey's 1st XV game against local rivals Riverview - with the promised 20,000 crowd looking a real possibility! Early (?) to bed and up early for the flight to Melbourne tomorrow.  (We didn't realise at the time but we're about to discover the advantages of having the Doc on tour!).