After a long hot barbecue summer, rugby league players old and new converged on the Midland Hotel, Cheltenham for OURLFC’s first pre-season training camp. First off was an introduction to the fundamentals of The Greatest Game, and then the group was put through an intense conditioning session, followed by classroom work. Afterwards, the Friday evening settled down to some light karaoke-based entertainment. Some might consider a song about Lola the transvestite on your first night with the club a little brave, but Rory ‘Pre-Op’ O’Neill seemed confident the incident would be overlooked. Coach Garbutt as usual led by example, with a stirring rendition of The King’s finest, Suspicious Minds.

Saturday dawned in glorious sunshine, with even Danny Soos managing to get to breakfast just half an hour late. Hunger securely locked up ‘til lunch, the squad embarked on a day’s training full of tackle technique, learning plays and questioning the Chuckle Brothers’ legitimacy as children entertainers. Thankfully, Paddy Boyle’s men were able to consistently perform to a high standard despite the heat, thanks to the sterling efforts of the water-boys. A good portion of State of Origin biff accompanied by Wayne Bennett’s charismatic analysis was enjoyed over lunch. Once refreshed, Mr Garbutt displayed his technological prowess in another classroom session with slick, flawlessly animated PowerPoint presentations.

After a hard day on the pitch, during which the squad really started to gel and lots of promising signs for the upcoming season flourished, the group retired the hotel to soak in some high-quality SuperLeague play-off action. Rugby-thirst sated, gladrags were donned and Greg Coates’ inaugural social of 2009-10 got underway. The details of the night are best left to the doubtless numerous re-tellings throughout the term; though if the person Charlie Thompson witnessed eat a urinal cake reads this, we’d love to hear from you...

Breakfast on Sunday morning was a relaxed and quiet affair, new teammates and friends swapping stories and discussing the weekend over an orange juice. It’s fair to say the OURLFC class of 09/10 has emerged from its weekend in Cheltenham looking sharp and strong, with an excellent team spirit developing. First up is for the Blues is a tough trip to Nottingham in the BUCS Premier South Division, but one that after this weekend they can definitely go into with some confidence. The Maroons kick-off their season away at local rivals Oxford Brookes, last year’s league winners in BUCS South Division. Coach Dan Garbutt is confident that now the university second team has a year’s experience under its belt, they can challenge the Brookes men.
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