1998 Tour of South Africa

A senior tour had been discussed in agonising detail through the mid-nineties, and South Africa was settled on as the ideal country to visit. The coaches wanted an experience on and off the field that would be remembered, and that would open the door to tours after it. It did exactly that: the 1998 trip reignited Brynteg's touring on the global stage and set the pattern for 2001, 2003 and 2005.

Gareth Williams, captain in 1996-97, had already left school when the tour came round. He came back for it. "The dream of returning to South Africa became a reality, a place I once lived as a young child," he wrote. "Led by James Bater as captain, rekindling memories of the previous year and being part of such a strong Brynteg side once again. If memory serves me well, we didn't taste defeat on that tour." He asked Keith Crockett for a game at outside half and got the familiar grin and the words "BOY … over my dead body … BOY!" He played flanker.

The tour is remembered as much for what happened off the pitch. Matthew Crockett falling asleep in a toilet cubicle after the Paarl Gim game and setting off a nightclub alarm in the early hours became folklore. The visit to the Tygerberg township left a deeper mark — a chapter, in Gareth's words, where cultural boundaries blurred and the sport bridged divides.

And then the luggage. Pete Cavalli's instruction to "look after everyone else's luggage bar your own" ended with Gareth's suitcase vanishing between London and the school gates, and an insurance claim covering rather a lot of Chanel and Louis Vuitton stash — his first taste, he claims, of being paid to play rugby.