Portugal 2025

The trip started off with an early morning Drop off at Terminal 2, we made our way through check in with minimal disruptions and through to our gate. The flight was nice and relaxed and the boys behaviour was excellent, with members of the public commenting on how polite and well mannered they were.

We landed at Lisbon airport and were greeted by our tour guide Manuel, he took us to our coach and we made our way to the first round of football fixtures. The U13 7 U14 teams were both playing against tough opposition. The U13’s had the tough task of trying to accommodate all 27 footballers but they managed well and put in an excellent performance. The U14 team had a fantastic match against Atletico Clube Porto Salvo which they drew 4-4. After finishing the match we headed to the hotel to check in and have a relaxing evening. We did presentations for the day with the U13’s player of the day going to Matt Backwell and the 14’s Player of the day going to Aadav Selvasekar. We also awarded two tourists of the day, and they were Marcus Jones and Harley Taylor.

Day 2 saw us have a morning at the beach, where we played beach football, frisbee and American football, it was a great way to set up for the rest of the day. In the afternoon we headed over to our rugby tournament which took place at Grupo Desportivo Direito. The U13 team were taking part in one group and the U14 in another group. Both age groups performed brilliantly well, with several tourists stepping up to play rugby to ensure that we had a full team. The 14’s played in a tough group but played some excellent rugby, with tough defence and excellent attacking play. The U13’s were brilliant throughout their three matches, winning 2 and narrowly losing the final game meant that they won the group comfortably. The day 2 awards were Masa Hall for U13’s player, Adam Horncastle for the u14’s player, Bruno Huth and Ralph Nolan for tourists of the day.

Day 3 was a very busy day which started with a pro rugby coaching session at Agronomia Rugby club, All of the students took part in this session which had a focus on developing footwork and attacking space. Following on from this we headed in to Lisbon where we had lunch followed by a tour of the Estadio da Luz Stadium. This included walking pitch side and meeting the two resident eagles that live in the ground. We then got to experience a few hours in Lisbon before heading to our final round of fixtures against Carenque. The U13’s had an A and B team fixture, with the A’s winning 6-3 and the B team losing 3-0. The U14’s had a fantastic win coming away with a 3-0 win. The day 3 awards were Fin Hargreaves for U13’s player, Josh Wright for the u14’s player, Ted Brazier and Ollie Rachubka for tourists of the day.

Day 4 was another jam-packed day. We were fortunate to go to Benfica training facility where we had a double training session with their academy coaches. All the boys took part in these sessions and really enjoyed themselves. The training was to a very high standard, and we were lucky enough to be able to go on a tour of the training facility where we saw several of the Women’s first team. We followed up an amazing day of training at Benfica with a trip to Sporting Lisbon to watch a top of the table clash against Braga. The atmosphere at the stadium was amazing, the football was great to watch and the boys thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The day 4 awards were Hugo Haddow for U13’s player, Lorenzo Jones for the u14’s player and Ed MacDonald for tourist of the day.

Our final day was spent with a morning at the beach to soak up the final rays of sunshine, before checking out of the hotel and heading to the airport. We touched down back in Manchester and after getting bags from luggage claim we did our final awards. We awarded Tourist of the tour to the following four pupils; Aadav Selvasekar for his performance across both sports. Bruno Huth for the energy that he brought throughout the tour. Oliver Stunell for his attitude, always being polite and stepping up to play rugby. Ollie Rachubka for his attitude throughout the tour.