Four boys from Calrossy Primary are about to embark on the trip of a lifetime.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Bradley MacDonald, Lachlan McEvoy, William Nichols and Harrison Nichols fly out on Thursday after being selected to represent Australia in a series of games as part of the Kamaisha International Junior Rugby Festival in Japan.
The quartet were spotted a Scripture Union Rugby Union Camp held at Calrossy in the last school holidays, where they were earmarked for showing “great enthusiasm” for the game.
They will play against local Japanese Primary School teams as well as teams from overseas including Taiwan and Hong Kong.
The format will be tag rugby which is a popular variation of the game at the junior level in Japan.
The trip has been funded by the Japanese Government and organised by the Japanese Sports Council as part of the countries’ preparations for the Rugby World Cup in 2019.
Kamaishi will host two RWC games and was the home of one of Japan’s most successful rugby clubs – The Nippon Steel Kamaishi (now known as the Kamaishi Seawaves), who won seven consecutive titles between 1978 and 1984.
The city was completely flattened in the 2011 tsunami, and has since been raised six metres and rebuilt.
After arriving in Japan, the boys will overnight in Tokyo and travel by bullet train to Shin Hanamaki then transfer to Kamaishi, where they will stay in a traditional Japanese Inn.
They will meet up with other teams from Hong Kong and Taiwan and attend a civic reception as well as visit local schools, and watch a professional rugby match at the new stadium before finishing the tour with a day sightseeing in Tokyo.