Two Parkland Pirates rugby teams recently returned from a trip to England and Wales, where they played games against local teams and did some sightseeing along the way.

Organizing for the trip began two years ago, right after a team from the program returned from a trip to Ireland.

Trip organizers go through a gentleman who runs Irish Rugby Tours, which organizes professional rugby tours around the world.

“We worked with him on the last trip to Ireland, which was amazing. We went through him again for this trip to England and Wales. And it was another amazing and great experience trip,” said Pirates coach Aaron Miner.

The Pirates’ girls team was 2-2 in their games, while the boys were 1-2.

Although the results were mixed, the experience gained was positive, Miner said.

“It would be like an English high school hockey team coming to play our high school hockey team,” he said, adding the Pirates played a game against the Bristol Bears farm team.

“The Bristol Bears are like the Rink Academy of London. It’s a prep school. They were so kind. They rolled out the red carpet everywhere we went. We were given their best coaches the day before to run drills in a training session for us,” Miner said, adding they also played the Harlequin rugby team, as well as Cardiff in Wales.

“We played their largest club team. We were just so happy with the way the boys played. We won one out of three. The girls won two out of four. It’s amazing to even touch the ball down in the try zone when you play against teams of that caliber,” Miner said, adding the results were one step better than when the teams went to Ireland.

For the full story, read this week’s edition of the Dauphin Herald.