WOMen's Blues Tour - Durham
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The Women*s Blues venture north to begin their 26/27 season. Scroll down to see:
- Tour Photos
-Tour itinerary
- Daily Blog
Itinerary
DAY 1 26/9/26: Travel to Durham
DAY 2 27/9/26: Training at Maiden Castle with John Bothwell (Blue #997) and members of the Durham Men's team; Dinner at the Heintz's
DAY 3 28/9/26: Beach trip to Seaham; contested training with Blaydon Red Kites
DAY 4 29/9/26: Explore Durham City Centre; Team dinner in town
DAY 5 30/9/26: Game Day vs DUWRFC (6.30PM Kick off), followed by joint socials
DAY 6 1/10/26: Return south to Oxford
Tour Daily Blog:
day 4 29/9/26:Explore Durham & Team Dinner
By Poppy Burrows (#425)
Durham tour day three saw our travelling Blues enjoy a much-welcomed free morning, exploring the sights of Durham city centre. Busy on an overcast matriculation day, we headed home in groups through the town to find brunch before our captain’s run down at The Racecourse. Fuelling up, talking tactics and plotting post-game plans, groups of freshers looked on at our contingent as we sat - proudly clad in dark blue stash, deep in enemy territory. The Blue invasion proceeded past another throng of Durham first years as we approached our training ground, where we polished our set plays and displayed our well-oiled squad, keen for tomorrow’s fixture. The team then departed in convoy, off to the warm embrace of Travelodge Durham. After promptly checking in, we relaxed for some downtime before getting ready for dinner in town. A carb-heavy Italian proved a wise choice as we left feeling satisfied and strong. Settling in for the night, we eased our pre-match jitters, each player looking forward to the impending battle at Hollow Drift.
day 3 28/9/26:Beach trip & Blaydon Red Kites
By Izzy Hedges (#427)
Day 3 of tour started bright and early - ish with a delicious brekkie, and a slower start with cars trickling away from OURFC HQ towards Seaham beach. A scenic jaunt up the M1 later, the team arrived and were immediately tempted into... Seaham big ASDA. In their defence, those staying outside of Durham hadn't seen a supermarket since they arrived in rural England two days earlier. Bags full of snacks, we headed to the beach via Shams' reccomended fish and chip shop, with key international members of the group visibly excited to complete the quintessential english experience of fish and chips on a rocky beach, under a rapidly greying sky. Camp was established, and while some eager beavers practised hooker throws and passing, the rest went rockpooling, hunted for sea glass, and all in all relaxed on some conveniently placed rock formations (which our Earth Sciences fresher disappointedly could not identify...). A few hours later, home was calling. OURFC charged back down the M1 to get some food in pre-training, before turning around for Blaydon RFC in order to get some contested training in against the Blaydon Red Kites. The more that can be said about this training session, the better. We arrived at the Blaydon grounds and were surprised by a choccy milk vending machine (to the delight of our dear captain). This was only the start of a super fun training session against the wonderful Red Kites, properly mixing in for some touch / shoulder-on games before drilling some line outs and live scrums with the Blaydon coaches and players. We finished up with a contested Captain's run, and have the Red Kites to thank for the helpful opportunity to run some shape ahead of Wednesday's game. After some final photos snapped by our very own Hedge, OURFC headed home after a long day at the office, and those driving were treated to a wonderfully scenic route back through some lovely narrow Consett roads - before munching some pesto pasta then piling into bed ahead of the next day's Travellodge translocation.
day 2 27/9/26:Old Blues& Dinner with the Heintz's
By Flora Gillies
Sunday preseason started with a relaxing morning for everyone who was already in Durham, for those who were yet to arrive Sunday morning started with Mel Morley telling us to pack light as five of us attempted to tetris our bags into her three door hatchback. Once we landed in Durham we were greeted by rugby coach, Blue #997 John Bothwell who kindly led us through a session. The forwards worked on their scrummaging and lineouts, under the helpful guidance of some of Durham University men’s squad, while the backs primed their aim with some cross bar drills and box kicking. We left the session feeling tired and transformed, but it was all for the better as we knew we’d worked hard. Training would not have been nearly as productive without the expertise of the John and the Durham students, we want to extend a big thank you to them for volunteering their time to the opposition! Daisy Heintz and Sophie Shams then welcomed us to the north - a welcome that was completed with some rain pelting down as training finished up. The day then ended at Daisy’s family home as we all indulged in some heart home-cooked curry (a Heintz family specialty). As the night grew dark we sat around the fire in Daisy’s living room and slowly made our way to bed. We appreciate the Heintz generosity in hosting us at their lovely house; feeding 21 rugby players (and housing 12 of them) is no mean feat!
day 1 26/9/26:Travel to Durham
By Poppy Burrows (#425)
We began our preseason tour by setting off from Oxford in the morning. The team in various players’ cars embarked on the 4.5 hour journey up to Durham. Once arrived at either the Heintz’s family home or Sophie Shams’ house we took time to catch up and got excited about the tour ahead. Our great hosts at the Heintz’s invited us all round for a team watch party for the England vs Black Ferns game. We watched this riveting game whilst the fire crackled away. Inspired by the perseverance and intensity of the Red Roses right up until the final whistle, we could not wait for our impending fixture. Afterwards, those of us staying with Shams headed home for a good night’s rest.