A GROUP of 40 plus Penarth Under-15s players, parents, coaches and brothers travelled to Rouen, Normandy over the Easter break for a rugby adventure kindly sponsored by British Lion Eggs, Cabot magicians assistants, Evans Medicinal remedies, Ironman transport and BeretsRus.com.

Warm-up activities of go-karting, paintball and high wire adventures made sure the boys and parents were raring to go when the team arrived at Stade Rouennais to play the under-16 academy team.

Tracey, Leia and Simon set the scene for heroic skills in the leaf canopy while Alain Carter in the Jones F1 team led by example at the go-karting track.

The opposition were not as experienced as the Penarth team but were physically more mature, especially shown by their bulky front row players. Penarth started extremely well by pressurising the Rouen team whenever possible and Joe profited from this by pouncing on a loose ball from an early scrum to gather and dive in to score and duly convert, 0-7 Penarth.

The second try for Penarth was made by the pack pinching one against the head by Tom G and Joe fed Josh on the right who powered through three tackles to score.

Against a bigger pack Penarth were working extremely well to hold their own, shown by the hard work by Niall, Alex S, Geraint and Tom J.

Rouen looked to use their bigger forwards to punch holes then try to release their outside backs and from one such attack from their own line Henry gathered a loose ball, got tackled, popped it up to himself first, then to Josh who ran in for his second and Penarth's third try, Joe’s conversion attempt hit the post.

Rouen hit back but the Penarth defence was sterling, keeping out any Normandy attacks. Penarth gained a fourth try and a hat-trick for Josh after great work by Ellis, Alex, Tomo and Joe.

Penarth were gaining lots of possession for their backline but sometimes took the wrong option and ignored the simple pass or kick to the corner instead, losing possession. Luc scored from a superbly executed planned backs move, involving Jack Twinkle and Henry, outstripping the Rouen defence to score under the posts, Ben J converted.

Rouen managed a first try of their own after a number of forward drives and their winger crashed over out wide. Penarth were not to be outdone and after a number of player interchanges which saw Dan R, Ben E, Alex O, Liam and Dan A enter the fray, Tom G popped up in the backline again and threw a John Dawes-like dummy to fool the defence and dive in near the posts, Ben J converted.

Penarth were now playing more like a French team from the 80s and a cheeky cross kick by Ben was gathered by Josh who managed to stay infield, against the protestations of the Rouen supporters, and sped down the left wing and behind the posts to score, Ben converted once more, keeping Tomo the chief tea boy busy for the afternoon.

Rouen hit back via their speedy winger once more who was given a little too much space. Then came the comedy moment of the match as a Rouen prop was tackled by Jack and Dan R and had his jersey pulled over his head which also contained the ball which the scrum half tried to pass while it was still contained in the stripped jersey. All players, supporters and the referee had to just stop and laugh together - scrum to Rouen - soon to be shown on "What happened next?"

Rouen managed to score the last try of the match after some great interplay between their backs and forwards after the best tackle of the match by Liam. Penarth held firm for the remainder of the match with Josh making a superb try saving cover tackle before finishing worthy winners, Rouen 15 - Penarth 43.

Both teams gathered to sing their customary end of match chants before taking advantage of the Rouen hospitality in their clubhouse all dressed as Blues Brothers characters.

Coaches and dignitaries exchanged speeches and gifts and many an egg was spilled in jest in the final round of egg roulette, interspersed with some classic tour songs.

A truly successful tour for all involved with some great memories that the players and supporters will remember for years to come. A great tour brings the boys together while also unearthing some true characters, namely Superfrank, Alun the choir master, Dicky the Magician, Rolling Rolling Rolling Daniel and all virgin singers.

All players would like to thank their parents for letting them be part of the adventure with special thanks to Declan especially for his organisation and timekeeping as well as Marcia, Gareth and Richard for their financial input. They all look forward to next year’s adventure.