On an overcast Good Friday the Horsham RFU Colts tour party left for St Maixent l'Ecole France for their traditional Easter Tour. St Maixent is twinned with Horsham and this weekend’s tour was to once again to play Rugby and rekindle the special relationship between the two towns.
The tour party of 22 players and 12 coaches/parents/tourists arrived thanks to EasyJet, settled into their accommodation, and had dinner at the Rugby club and got to know their hosts.
Saturday started with breakfast, a tour of the town and then a meeting with Leopold Moreau, the Mayor of St Maxient. Also in attendance was a member of Horsham’s twinning committee Mr James Prentice. There followed introductions and speeches from the mayor of St Maixent, Stéphane Guignard, President of St Maxient Rugby club, Sam Jewell the Horsham Colts Captain and James Prentice who also exchanged gifts.
After lunch a three team tournament was played with Horsham Colts beating Puilbureau 5-14 and Niort 5-17. In the evening the tour party attended a dinner & disco that had been arranged by the hosts with 300 people associated with Saint Maixent Rugby Club in attenannce
Sunday and the big game against a combined team of St Maixent and Parthenay kicked off at 3pm with national anthems before the match. The final score of the game which was played in great spirit was St Maixent 35 – 66 Horsham Colts.
The evening was spent at the Rugby club getting socialising with our hosts a small party of the touring adults attending, with some of our hosts, a enjoyable concert of Bach music at the Abbey in St Maxient.
The next day all returned home having enjoyed a great weekend, witnessed some fantastic Rugby and forging stronger links with the citizens of St Maixent.
We would like to thank the Mayor of St Maxient for welcoming us to his town but special thanks must go to Stéphane Guignard who with his team, kept the tour party fed and entertained the whole weekend.
Horsham RUFC look forward to hosting Saint Maixent when they return to Horsham in 2020 with their U16.

Massive thanks to our supporters & parents who made a huge effort to travel to South West France to watch the games, and to Steve Endacott's Rock Insurance Group for shirt sponsorship.