Pictured : This year’s 1st XV (top) and The victorious U13s (bottom).
those new to the rugby club: Messrs Allen, Hanks, Sewell, Kelly and Shirazi, who have all fitted in seamlessly and all added to the coaching team. As always, teachers move on, so I’d like to thank Mr Swift for all of his efforts over the past few years and wish him all the best at Reads. There have been some great achievements over the year, but the U13s’ victory at the Rosslyn Park National 7’s perhaps stands out most. The last time we won this competition was in 1993 with the ‘dream team’ that never lost a game throughout their time at Dulwich College. With 140 teams entered, we had to win eight games over two days to secure victory. Seeing the U13s win the Final against Whitgift, being cheered on by the 1st XV the day before our Natwest Cup Final, was one of the highlights of my time at Dulwich. Unsurprisingly, the U13s had an excellent 15-a-side year as well. They made the Quarter Finals of the National Cup, as did the U15’s and 1st XV – again, something that no other school has achieved. Both the 13s and 15s lost to teams that either went on to win or make the final of their competition, showing that with another draw they would both have probably made the final.
MR SAM HOWARD
A fter the many successes the Rugby club has live up to last year’s achievements. Remarkably, over the past 12 months, across the whole school, I actually think we have surpassed all previous years’ accomplishments and once again I make no apologies for stating that no other school in the country achieves what we do. The success started with the announcement that we would be a host venue for the Rugby World Cup – we will be hosting both Australia and Romania for two weeks. The Australians also chose to train at the College before their game against the Barbarians in October. One of the reasons for our successful bid was the quality of our new 1st XV pitch. Some felt it to be controversial to be moving the pitch, but as soon as any doubters experienced watching the 1st XV play on an outstanding surface, from the balcony with a cold drink in hand, all negative thoughts were erased. It has been great to see so many more OAs and friends come and watch the 1st XV and enjoy their afternoons in the Salle alongside home and away parents and staff. We pride ourselves on the amount of teams we put out on a Saturday and aim to give as many boys experience of competitive Rugby as possible. On Saturday 13th September, we put out 29 teams against Whitgift and Wellington in what we believe is probably a record for one school or club in this country, if not the world. In addition to this, every boy in the Junior School represented the College in a competitive fixture. For us this is just as important as winning matches and competitions – if not more important. At Dulwich, winning isn’t the be-all and end-all, but we have had outstanding results throughout the school this season. The results in the Upper School have been the best ever, which shows the quality of boys coming through at B, C and D level is extremely strong, and which enables us to compete with and beat the top schools at 3rd, 4th and 5th XV level. The reason we have such good boys coming through is the excellence of coaching these boys are receiving, no matter which team they are in. We are very fortunate to have so many talented, hardworking and enthusiastic rugby coaches who the boys all respect and look up to and whose characteristics they aim to reproduce on the pitch. My thanks go to all the coaches, but especially achieved over the past few seasons, I often find myself repeating myself or wondering how we can
‘We pride ourselves on the amount of teams we put out on a Saturday and aim to give as many boys experience of competitive Rugby as possible’
Tom Marchant writes elsewhere on these pages about the 1st XV, but I must congratulate them publicly on an outstanding year. The pressure was always on this group of young men not to be the first team to lose a National Cup game. When the draw was done, it was apparent that this was going to be even harder than previous years. Despite this, the team, through a ridiculous amount of hard work on the training pitch, and displaying enormous amounts of determination and pride in the shirt, proved many people wrong and overcame some massive challenges from John Fisher, Trinity and Hampton to make the final for the fourth time in row, an achievement I cannot see being repeated again. Unfortunately, it did not go our way and we lost to a very good Bromsgrove team that deserved to win on the day. Thank you, boys, for all that you achieved this year and for putting your bodies on the line every time you donned that black and blue jersey. My last thanks goes to Captain Tom Marchant, who led and played, like the previous three captains, from the back row with courage and skill, never taking a backward step. Good luck to next year’s captain, Cameron Henderson, who I’m sure will do the same – but maybe slightly quicker!
127
126
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs