Organising 75 youth athletes for an international tour was never going to be easy. But the Bermuda Rugby Football Union managed to do just that earlier this month – at the same time as they organised more than 25 coaches for the juniors and the entire national rugby team.

The group, including players as young as eight, left Bermuda on a chartered 737 bound for the Cayman Islands.

The youth players competed against their Cayman counterparts in the Under 10, Under 12, Under 14 and Under 16 age groups in the Conyers Youth Cup, an annual international rugby tournament which alternates between the two islands.

With nervous smiles and butterflies in many stomachs, the boys and their coaches – together with a number of supporters – boarded their flight with a view to defending the Cup, which Bermuda won in 2009.

Robert Blee, one of the organisers explained that, while the rugby was important, it was not the only focus of the tour.

"We had an excellent group of players who were from a broad spectrum of backgrounds and represented 14 different schools in Bermuda. The boys played some great rugby, but they also made some great friendships and bonded as a group. It was gratifying to see."

When not training or playing, the players were treated to activities such as swimming with stingrays in a natural environment and surfing on one of the world's largest man-made wave machines.

Despite all that fun, the players were both focused and determined, and after some very hard fought matches, the group returned with the Conyers Cup in hand. This complemented the performance of the senior national team, which came from behind to beat Cayman's senior national team.

Graham Cooke, captain of the Under-14 team, said: "The match was so tough and so close it was amazing how the whole team came together and played their hearts out in order to come home with a win!"

"It was a massive undertaking," Michael Montgomery, chairman of the BRFU, said of the tour "but everything went smoothly, and the players had an experience of a lifetime.

"Some of them are already asking when the next tour will be!"