"I want to live my life so that my nights are not full of regrets."
D H Lawrence

To tour or not to tour really shouldn't be the question that is in your head right now. The question should be:

"What would my life be like if I didn't do everything in my power to be on the plane to Santiago in 15 months' time?"

What I am not proposing to do in this article, is to deliver specific stories about touring for obvious reasons, but I will relate to you what I think is the massive opportunity that is the 2009 Tour to Chile.

My analogy to this is that in my last year before leaving school to go to university, my rugby coach Mike Davies (who also played at HWRUFC) said to me, "Enjoy this season. This will be the fittest that you will ever be, and some of the rugby you play will be of the highest standard that you will ever play." My reply, "That's mad. When I'm at university, I'll have more time to train, and I'll get fitter and be able to play better rugby." He just smiled, that smile of a man who had been through what I was about to go through and knew that I was being deluded. Looking at my waistline now and my abilities on a Saturday afternoon, he was right and I was wrong - in a big way. The reason that I am telling you that story, is that if you decide that you will give Chile a miss on the basis that there will another tour like this you are being deluded.

That is not to say that High Wycombe Rugby Club will never in its future tour to Chile again, I am saying that the people that you will tour with, the places that you will see, the experiences that you will have, as a complete package, will never be replicated. Time moves quicker as you get older, just ask Cuss and Alex Wells for their respective theories, but the conclusion is the same, do what you can now, because there will come a time when you can't do it any more. Combine the acceleration of time, with the constantly increasing external influences that we all have to deal with then a rugby tour seems like an illogical thing to do. But isn't rugby in itself illogical? Isn't that one of the things that bands us together, the fact that we do something that others find unfathomable? It is very easy to kick a ball towards a goal (oversimplification I know, but I am writing for a rugby publication), but how difficult is it to:

• learn an arcane set of rules some of which are never used in a game
• play a sport where team work far outweighs the ego
• play a game everyone performs a role within an organisational structure, but then has to be flexible enough to do someone else's job at any given point in the game
• learn how to trust the people around you, not only to do their jobs in the game, but in some cases to ensure your personal safety
• run into someone running at you with no regard for your own safety
• dive on a ball when you know ten other people are going to dive on top of you
• respect the referee

And as a spectator how difficult is it to:

• learn an arcane set of rules some of which are never used in a game
• take the fat boys seriously when they try to pass the ball
• stand in the cold watching a game when you may have other responsibilities
• respect the referee

Quite frankly, it all defies logic. But that is definitely one of the things that I love about it. All this talk about defying logic, though, really does fade away when you are in the bar, and it is crowded and it is buzzing. Golf, for me defies the logic, because you spend more time playing the game than you do enjoying the banter afterwards. Rugby's proportions have got it the right way round.

If you buy into what I have just said, imagine the same in a foreign country. Where, not only are you playing a crazy sport, but you have flown half-way round the world to do it.

I am a film fan, and one of my favourite quotes comes from one of my favourite films: The Shawshank Redemption, where Morgan Freeman's character says:

"You either get busy living, or get busy dying"

So what is in store for you if you make it to Santiago?

You will be fair game for banter (especially if you are a Tour Virgin)
Arnhem 2008, may for some seem like the proverbial bridge too far, but I pity the fools who arrive in Chile as tour virgins. This is a rite of passage that all rugby players must suffer/enjoy, but I for one do not think that you can truly call yourself a rugby player until you have made it through a tour where you started as a tour virgin. I can't tell what exactly is in store, as much more creative people than me will have their say in that. Your life won't be put in danger, but you will emerge with more character.

You will have a surreal experience
Again, don't ask me how, but you will have a new experience. Maybe it will be due to the exuberance of youth, maybe it will be due to the exotic nature of what you consume, maybe you can put it down to the altitude, but something completely different will happen to you through what you pour down your neck and the lack of sleep from the night before.

You will play the most enjoyable game of rugby of your life
I can almost certainly say that it won't be because of the quality of the rugby that it will be the most enjoyable. It will be the circumstances - players that you won't have played with before, in a completely different place with a completely different hangover, all combined with the euphoria of the bonding on tour that makes it a game that you remember forever.

You will make a new friend on tour
Mine is Sean Molloy. He approached me in the hotel bar in Arnhem and said "Paul, I think it's time for us to get to know each other better." Fearing the worst, I decided to try and scare him off by buying him Bloody Beers (Bloody Mary and Beer mixed), but that didn't work because he bought me some back, and I had a new friend for life.

You will renew an old friendship on tour
You may see them every week at the club. You may have the odd pint together and do what amounts to small-talk. But you have kind of drifted past each other whilst being members of the same club and even team. You just may not see someone as often as you used to. Being away on tour will allow you to properly re-acquaint yourself with someone who you used to know well.

You will see Chunky grinning inanely (if he goes)
It's brilliant. And generally happens early on in the night. But it is at that point that all is well in the world.

You will fear the Dice (or the golf ball or another drinking game)

So, what do you do next? Go back to what you were doing before? Ignore this article? I hope not.

If any of this resonates with you, then the momentum needs to build for this large undertaking. Apathy will kill this tour stone dead.

There are a number of events that have been conceived to raise awareness and support for tour such as the Chile Night on the 15th of March, in addition we are running a summer Beer Festival. So, please support the events, and if you are aware of any companies who would be interested in sponsoring the tour, please make someone on the committee aware. The real support that this tour needs is people to signal their intent to be on that plane.

"He who dares Rodney"

If you are interested in touring, please contact:

Nick Kidby
Ross Mackerron
Antonio Collinao
Paul de Raney