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Dowco Sponsorship - Adam Timler (Rugby)

Dowco recently helped sponsor Semiahmoo Secondary School’s Rugby Team’s tour of Australia.   Adam Timler thanked us for our sponsorship and reports his team gained a new perspective of the level of expertise that can be achieved in rugby from their visit Down Under.

After Semiahmoo arrived in Sydney, they toured various venues by bus playing against local teams who provided them with billets.   They played Cherry Brook High (a suburb of Sydney) then Narrabri (a 7 hour trip).  Unfortunately in this game Adam received an aggressive tackle and sprained his right ankle, which sidelined him for the rest of the tour. 

Next stop was Echidna Gully Pioneer Village (a sheep farm hostel) en route to Coff’s Harbour (where Australia’s national team, the Wallabies, practice), and which has landscape similar to White Rock.  Next stop was Port Macquarie, where the team took time from training to surf Australia’s waves.   The opposition here was older, a local rep team, and by now injuries began to mount – dislocated knee-caps, rotator cuff problems etc.  Although we had the benefit of local rugby celebrity Nigel Harding instructing our defence, we still lost.   Epping Boys’ High School (in another suburb of Sydney) was the next and last billeted stop   The team played hard, tying at first half, but the Australian level of play is so high, they pulled off yet another win. 

The team then managed some free time in Sydney, moving into a hostel downtown, where they unwound, shopped for rugby shirts (a bargain Down Under!) and attended a Super 14 game (equivalent to our NHL for hockey only for rugby) between Warratahs of Sydney vs Auckland Blues of New Zealand, a great game that Warratahs won handily. The team flew home next day, having gained phenomenal experience from this exchange, and greatly increasing their level of expertise.