Last weekend saw the rebirth on the Mackie Mini’s P7’s annual Easter Tour which has been missing from the social calendar in recent years. Parents and players alike departed on Friday for the sun kissed East Lothian Riviera and Seton Sands Holiday Park. The bus journey quickly passed with the aid of Big Eric’s sports quiz and numerous renditions of Taylor’s Swift ‘Trouble’ from the kids. Obviously a firm favourite on everyone’s playlists!! After an ‘early’ night the coach departed for the Capital and a warm-up match with Murrayfield Wanderers set under the shadows of Scotlands National stadium. With the home team short of numbers the teams were balanced up with some volunteers from the Mackie squad. The game saw some wonderful rugby being played with Nathan Grundy being named man of the match for all his efforts. Following on from the rugby the touring party then took part in some light entertainment in the form of Laser Combat. The P7’s platoon faced an almighty battle against a battalion of war hardened veteran’s led by James ‘Rambo’ Sadio and Colin ‘The Exterminator’ Inglis. After two hours of fierce fighting there must surely be a few candidates for walk-on parts in Gary –Tank Commander with Andy ‘Kamikaze’ Cowburn standing out in particular.

Following an entertaining Saturday evening meal which saw the parents participate in some light hearted rugby games the bus journey back to base camp gave the P7’s a chance to hold ‘court’ and dish out fines to those unfortunate souls that had slipped up during the course of the day. The nature if the fines cannot be divulged for sake of disciplinary action which may result from the SRU!!

Finally Sunday arrived with a Bang (well more of a Thud) as the tour party departed 45mins late for the much anticipated tournament hosted by Musselburgh Rugby club. This tournament gave the P7’s an opportunity sample the level of rugby on offer in the South of Scotland. It’s fair to say that the pre-tournament warm-up did nothing to the convince the coaches that there would be a serious challenge during the days proceeding’s but I guess that was to be expected. The first game saw Mackie up against a formidable Heriot’s side who had one almighty ‘giant’ of a player within their ranks. The game plan for Heriot’s was simple – Get the ball to the big man and let him run through everyone. Sure enough this is what happened and before long Mackie had three players out injured as the giant set about his business. Heriot’s took the upper hand and managed to get the vital first score but it wasn’t without some courageous tackling from the Mackie Team. As Mackie ‘wakened’ up to the fact that they were in a real game they eventually started to make some foraging runs into the heart of the Heriot’s defence. In fact Mackie were unlucky not to score from a quick penalty as Finlay Jacobs made a break and needed that all important second pass to be assured of a score. Unfortunately Mackie were thwarted in their efforts with Heriot’s triumphing in the end. The second game saw Mackie up against the hosts Musselburgh which proved to be a less bruising affair although still very competitive. Mackie eventually triumphed by scoring that vital try before moving onto to the final group game against Lasswade. With Heriot’s already assured of qualifying for the final, Mackie were determined to go out of the tournament with a bang. Against probably the weakest side in the group Mackie were soon onto top and relaxed into a game of lovely flowing rugby at times. Mackie eventually triumphed 3-0 but the tournament proved that Mackie P7 are a forced to be reckoned with in Scottish rugby.

After a successful tour the bus departed for home with a lot of tired kids on board and thankfully no further renditions of Taylor Swift. The journey home was complete with a couple of trophies handed out, Finlay Jacobs first of all receiving Player of the Tour and Ethan Thomas picking up the well deserved Sportsman of the Tour award.