SAINTS Academy passed their four-match tour of Australia with flying colours after clocking up wins against Penrith Panthers, Wests Tigers, Central Coast and Parramatta.

The group, comprising 25 players and ten staff, continued the club’s fine tradition of performing well Down Under on what was Saints’ sixth tour.

Academy coach and AASE Apprenticeship manager Derek Traynor, who has been on all six tours, was proud of the way the lads conducted themselves on tour and dug deep to return home undefeated.

Traynor said: “It was excellent. It was an absolutely tremendous experience for everyone and the lads showed real commitment in training out there and the way they performed.

“We have lost two and drawn one in previous six tours – but this is only the second group that has won all matches on a four-game tour.

“They played some competitive teams too with the victory against Parramatta being the highlight for me.

“Parramatta were physically a massive team and they overpowered us at first. But the lads stuck at it and won it in the last play of the game. It was great to see that they could still perform the skills under pressure and so that last minute try was the highlight.”

But the tour was about more than simply the four matches and the 25 lads, made up of school leavers from the past two years, gained plenty out of the experience.

“More than anything they get three weeks where they are professional players,” Traynor said.

“They are training twice a day and it is about how they recover and prepare.

“They are on the go all the time so it is very tiring, but it is very enjoyable for them seeing the other side of the world, the sights of Sydney and all the activities like white water rafting.

“They had great life experiences, things that they would never do, but to do it with a gang of rugby mates is tremendous.”

The biannual tour Down Under is something unique to Saints in Super League – but one that is important in helping the club develop players and identify at close quarters which ones have the makings of top flight players going forward.

Traynor added: “There is only us that do this sort of tour. Some other clubs have tried it, done one tour but then no more. We are already preparing for the next one in 2017.

“It is a big process and the club helps massively, but the lads play a part in fundraising, with bucket collections at the ground and packing bags.

“There are a lot of people who help out a lot. Mike Rush plays a big part in the organisation of it all.

“Then there is former Castleford coach, Dave Woods who is now based in St Helens – he drives our coach over there, organises our trips and we’d be lost without him.

“Eric Chisnall has been on every tour we have done. For the lads his experience is valuable. He has time to sit down with the lads and pass that good experience is a great mentor for those players.

“As much as the players get a lot out of it, we as coaches get plenty too. We see these lads under pressure, away from home with no mum and dad at home to run back to – they are on their own and it is how they handle things.

“You generally find that the kids who perform in Australia do end up becoming Super League players for the club.”

Away from playing and training the tour allowed some past players and coaches of the club to renew their acquaintances to show that the saying ‘Once a Saints always a Saint’ rings true.

Traynor said: “We bumped into Royce Simmons, who came to see us because we were based in Penrith, and had a couple of hours with him.

“Then we met up with Daniel Anderson at Parramatta and he had some dealings in organising that game. Nathan Brown was in touch and we went for an afternoon with him at Cronulla where we also met up with Cliff Watson and former 1970s player David Eckersley.

“It was great listening to Cliff and Eric chatting about their time playing together at Saints in the late 60s.”

The tour was not all a bed of roses and Josh Eaves, one of more experienced players, broke his jaw 15 minutes into the first game on tour. Fortunately he did not need surgery and was able to stay on tour and the support he gave the lads was “tremendous”.

But with that tour done it won’t be long before the schedule for the next one is getting sketched out.

“We will sit down after Christmas and start planning 2017, it will be about lads proving they are good enough to tour and then they will be invited in over an 18 month period,” Traynor said.