House Rugby 2023

The annual House Rugby competition took place on an incredibly sunny Saturday morning at the end of Term 1. The boys turned up for an action-packed day, where 310 boys played in either our touch or contact tournament. The year groups ranged from Year 7, which had 140 boys, Year 8, which had 109 boys turning up, and Year 9 with 61 boys turning up. All the games were played with great spirit and intensity, which put plenty of smiles on faces. 

While the boys were competing, the parents were upstairs with Mr Papworth and Mr Robinson being given a talk about the philosophy of rugby in the School, then afterwards chowing down on either a burger or hot dog. 

After all the pool stage games had been played and all the great advice coming from our Senior rugby team had been said, the final games to confirm the House rugby standings needed to be played. For Year 7, the games were played in great spirit and for some it was their first time playing a game of rugby, even though it was a touch game. All the final games at the end were close and finished within a 1 try difference and the final victors were Hill. 

Moving on to Year 8, and the passion and energy brought into the games was amazing to see. The final deciding games were all close and the determination to win was on show for all to see. It was that close that the 1st place game went down to a golden try after the score was 6-6 in regular time. A superb intercepted pass and a goose step around the last defender secured Hill the victory. 

Finally, Year 9 House rugby was full of skill and spectacle to watch throughout the pool stages right up to the final game. The 1st place game was Down vs Town, it was a great example of rugby as Town were on their try line, against an overwhelming Downs team: in the dying minutes a great turnover and kick into touch secured Town’s victory 2-1. 

The final standings for each year groups are figured out by combining both the final standings of the touch and contact tournaments and also the number of boys who turned up for each House contributes to the final standings (except Year 9 as they didn't have a touch tournament). Year 7 final standings were: 1st Hill, 2nd Downs, 3rd Town, joint 4th Fleet and Cliff and last in 6th place, School. Year 8 final standings were 1st Cliff, 2nd School, 3rd Town, joint 4th Hill and Down and in 6th place Fleet. Year 9 final standings for House Rugby were: 1st Down, 2nd Cliff, 3rd Hill, 4th Down, 5th Fleet 6th School.