The rugby, hockey and netball players were amazed at how competitive their opponents were Down Under and they believe they have learned some vaulable lessons to improve their future performances.

Ollie Wolfe, the 1st XV rugby captain, said: "It was a great experience for all of us.

"It was good to experience that sort of culture because it was so different to the attitude to sport of the English. They just can't bear losing in Australia and New Zealand and we had to match that attitude on the field."

His comments were echoed by netball captain and hockey player Poppy Whitbread, who broke her finger in one particularly aggressive match against Samuel Marsden School in Wellington, New Zealand.

"Netball is supposed to a non-contact sport but they are so violent over there," said the 17-year-old, as she showed off the bandage and splint on her damaged finger.

"It was a very physical game and when I went up for a high ball she pushed down on my hand and I felt something pop in my finger.

"The netball team did really well. It is the end of the season down there so they had been playing and training hard for some time but we had some good results and we learned a lot playing against them."

The rugby first team performed impressively, winning three of their games, drawing one and losing the other two.

The three victories were achieved without conceding a point but the best display according to skipper Wolfe was the 17-17 draw with the talented New Zealand Sports Academy at the Rotorua in the first match of the tour, just 48 hours after the party arrived from their long flight.

Flanker Hamish Watson was the best forward and fly half Charlie Walker the outstanding back. The 2nd XI won four of their games and lost the other two.

"We didn't have great expectations going out there because we knew it was a big step up in the standard of rugby we are used to," he said.

"It was the end of their season so we knew they would be fit. We took quite a new team and one which was particularly small and we came up against some very big players.

"The New Zealand teams also did the Haka before our games and it was the first time any of us had experienced anything like that."

In the hockey programme, the 1sts won four and lost three while the 2nd XI won twice, drew twice and lost the other game. Oakham's netball squad had a much tougher experience, with the 1st XI winning just one of their six matches and the 2nds losing four and drawing one. A 3rd team were beaten on their two outings.

Poppy got to play two games of hockey and two netball matches before her injury sidelined her.

She said: "The netball first team should have won more matches but we made some silly mistakes.

"The hockey teams did very well against some very tough opposition."

School director of sport Iain Simpson was one of 10 staff who accompanied the 73 students on the tour, which spent the first week in New Zealand and then a fortnight in Australia.

He said: "Everybody came home having had a fantastic experience.

"The main thing was watching how the team progressed and there was definitely some improvement in all the teams over the three weeks.

"The rugby team had to face a level of physicality which they had never seen before. It was not uncommon for them to come up against Maories and Samoans who weighed in the region of 130kg (30st)."