It was a special place for the couple; Stone had previously played for Melrose a few years ago.
The clubroom proposal added to Southbridge’s 33-21 win to end their three-week tour of the United Kingdom, a game Stone managed to score in.
Fitting celebrations followed, with the club’s rugby development manager Chris McMillan also celebrating his birthday on the same day.
Southbridge beat Scottish club Melrose 33-21 in a tight battle to end their United Kingdom tour with a 2-1 record.
For the club’s rugby development manager Chris McMillan, the highlight of the tour was beating Melrose at the ‘greenyards’ – the place where rugby sevens was born.
“The tour has been a great success, winning two from three, and getting a win in our last game versus Melrose was a great way to finish,” he said.
“The real success of the tour was the bonds the whole tour group has made, which will be life-long.”
The clash against Melrose was a special game for Southbridge, as eight players from the Scottish club had played for Southbridge in recent years.
“Our connections go back over 10 years with Melrose,” McMillan said.
“It was the first time for all our players playing on a 4G turf. The game was very fast and very physical and a fantastic game to watch, which kept the crowd on the edge of their seats all game.”
However, Southbridge got out to a blitzing start.
Hamish Maw, Adam Stone and Jone Taufaga all managed to dot down with Jack Johnston converting the three tries to see Southbridge go out to an early 21-0 lead.
Melrose were able to fight back with a try of their own before wing Cowan Estall scored at the end of the first half.
The tour took two years of planning. McMillan hopes to run another one in the future.
“I hope in the future we could have a tour like this every six years, if possible.
“I think everyone . . . would agree this tour has been very special.”
His advice to other clubs wanting to take a team outside of New Zealand was to start planning early.
“It is also important to have good connections with the clubs you are looking at playing against to make life easy.”
McMillan said the accompanying team management was “extremely proud” of the efforts of the players and how they embraced the Barbarians theme.
“A special thanks goes to all our supporters that joined us for the tour, of which we had around 40. I am sure they all enjoyed it very much and they certainly added a lot to the tour.
“Finally I would like to thank all our sponsors that made this trip possible, without your support it would never had happened.”
- For more pictures, videos and scores from Southbridge’s United Kingdom tour, check out www.facebook.com/SouthbridgeRFC\
