GRAEME'S BLOG DAY TWO PART II

I don't really know how to start describing our welcome at Buenos Aires CRC. I struggle to imagine something similar happening at MRFC.

45 minutes outside central BA you turn off into a suburb of mid-scale low rise houses, large areas still bare ground with a pattern of streets paved but yet to be built up. This was an old shallow lake which has been drained and is gradually being turned over to development. The club lies at the centre of the area, with the remnant of the original lake just behind the clubhouse. As the bus drew up, a small welcoming committee – George Grant, Fernando and Frankie Deges came forward and shook hands. Ah, that's nice, we thought. Then a couple of lads came over and offered greetings as well, and then a few more and suddenly there were 50 or 60 young Argentinians smiling and shaking hands with every Maids player and chatting in good English with the staff and supporters. The whole milling throng then crabbed across to the wide open area between the two main club buildings and George organised a big circle of all the boys. Calling a local boy out by name, he read the name of the visiting Maid(s) to be hosted and the room-mates came forward to shake hands and greet each other. I watched a couple of BACRC players miming an upward handshake, as if with a giant, and indeed it was noticeable that the Maids had half a head on the hosts throughout.

These introductions complete, all the Maids boys and half the BA boys went off to change and, far from disappearing into teenage isolation, most of the rest came and chatted with any visiting adult. I got cornered by about a dozen of them and was quizzed about the ages of our boys, which Premiership team I followed (Harlequins, I owned, Ah, Gonzalo Camacho, he is from this club, they puffed up with pride). They wanted to know if Maidenhead played against Wasps and Leicester and I struggled to explain the number of levels in between. They asked if we had had new shirts made for our tour and they were obviously touched by the national flag in the design. They asked why the Uruguay flag as well and snorted when I said we were a bit apprehensive at facing a national selection in Montevideo. They were dismissive of their neighbours in less than polite language. They asked if I rated Martin Johnson and if England could win the RWC. I said I would be happy to qualify from the group stage ahead of Argentina and Scotland and they laughed. They were surprised when I pointed out that not all the Maids they would be playing were English and one of them said we must be the British Lions!

Off went the boys for a bit of warm up and then into the games. There is more to come but I am off to the orphanage now.