QEGS’ consistency up with the country’s finest
Brendan Gallagher continues his series looking at rugby’s great schools
ALWAYS the bridesmaid, never the bride. Well except for one occasion. QEGS Wakefield’s modern history by almost all criteria has been a resounding success with no fewer than nine appearances in national finals at one level or another but, alas, just one of those gala occasions have resulted in a win and the lifting of silverware.
Their consistency, however, has been admirable and impressive. In the first decade of the NatWest U18 Cup, QEGS excelled themselves in reaching three finals – 1995, 1996 and 2000 – and on all three occasions they were unfortunate enough to lock horns with a totally dominant Colston’s side who were on a run of six consecutive titles.
QEGS failed to get on the scoreboard in all three games – losing 23-0, 20-0 and 33-0 – but, given the carnage Coslton’s were inflicting on all-comers around the circuit, they were actually very competitive performances. Damage limitation was pretty much the best you could aim for against that Colston’s side.
The noughties were relatively quiet but QEGS began to flex their muscles again in 2010 when they reached the NatWest quarter-finals and lost only one regular season game, which they replicated exactly the following season.
QEGS were beginning to stir and evidence of that came further down the school in 2013. The U15s reached their Cup final when they lost to Warwick School, the start of one of the greatest modern day rivalries in schools sport, let alone schools rugby.
The following year Warwick again got the better of their Yorkshire opponents in the U15 final and remarkably the two teams met for a third successive final in 2015 with QEGS this time finally lifting the trophy.
That excellence, as you might expect, continued at senior level in the following year when QEGS reached another U18 Final, having beaten Warwick 21-12 in an eagerly anticipated semi-final. It seemed like it might be QEGS’ year – Warwick had been the competition favourites and had been toppled – but lying in wait were an excellent Bromsgrove XV who won a tight and canny final 18-10.
Next year perhaps? Except that the 2016-17 tournament saw QEGS and Warwick drawn against each other at the quarter-final stage in a game that would have been a worthy final. This time Warwick prevailed 13-11 and the Midlands school went on to beat Bishop’s Wordsworth 27-5 in the final.
The following season QEGS and Warwick were still going at it hammer and tongs – by this stage the respective sets of parents on the touchline and in the stands were on first name terms, so frequently were their sons meeting in big matches.
QEGS had to fight their way past Northampton School for Boys in a tough semi-final, and Warwick were fully extended by Whitgift, but come the final it was Warwick who came with their A game to run out comfortable 29-7 winners, but the there is still fire and brimstone when these two sides meet.
Just last year, in the 2019 competition, they again found themselves locking horns in the quarter-final and, has proved the case more often than not, it was Warwick who emerged victorious, this time winning 14-8.
It’s an immensely proud record if ultimately tinged with a little disappointment but QEGS have been competitive throughout their long history. This is the school after all that gave us Mike Tindall and Mike Harrison, both of whom captained England during World Cup campaigns.
Geoffrey Clarkson – something of a Rugby League cult figure – also learnt his rugby at the school as did playwright David Storey whose gritty book This Sporting Life earned two Oscar nominations in 1960. The roll of honour is rich and varied.
The first record of rugby at the school came in a newspaper article in the Wakefield Express in November 1874 which refers to a match against Leeds St Johns with other early opponents being Leeds GS, Woodhouse Grove and Bradford GS while the school became officially affiliated with the RFU in 1880.
Given its geographic location, Rugby League – from the formation of the Northern Union in 1895 – has always been a factor and QEGS have spawned a number of League internationals in Ron Rylance, Roy Pollard, Colin Bell, Roger Pearman and Clarkson, who played professional for no fewer than 12 clubs.
In 1930 a former pupil, Gordon Bonner, was chosen for the 1930 ‘British Lions’ tour to Australia and New Zealand and although he appeared in ten games on tour he missed out on selection for the Tests reportedly earning the wrath of the tour management at one stage for refusing to play when injured.
Bonner, who was never capped by England despite his
Lions tour, is an interesting case with a foot in both Union and League circles. His father was president of Wakefield Trinity and indeed for a while was chairman of the Rugby League Council, while Gordon eventually bowed to the ‘inevitable’ and turned professional with Trinity in 1934.
The 1930s was a strong era for the school, possibly due to the arrival of Wales fly-half Frank Williams as head of games. Williams was a fixture in the Wales side between 1929 and 1933 and introduced new levels of fitness and commitment to QEGS Wakefield. He served during the Second World War and returned to the school with, what we would now call, PTSD and struggled to achieve the success of former years.
During the 30s Allan Walker was one of the school’s most successful captains, winning all 16 games played during the 1935/36 season, a year when another former pupil, Reg Bolton, was adding to his England caps, scoring a try against Scotland. The team scored 507 points, conceding only 56.
Jack Ellis was another star product and was capped for England in the last international played before the outbreak of WW2. He continued to play for
England in no fewer than ten Red Cross International games but his full Test career had been ruined by the War.
The 1954/55 side under the captaincy of Colin Littlewood were unbeaten with 16 wins and one draw, improving on the previous season under the same captain: 13 wins, 2 draws and one defeat. Six of the 54/55 side were selected for the Yorkshire Schoolboys side who lost to their Welsh counterparts 11-6.
The school not only produced players but also spawned a string of talented coaches including Alan Jubb who developed Les Cusworth and Bryan Barley while teaching at Normanton Grammar School, Ted Wood at Durham University and Ian Gibson and Mike Elford, both at schools and county level.
Mike Harrison played for the school in the early 1970s when he starred mainly at scrum-half although there was never any disguising his serious gas. A car accident in 1974, when he picked up a bad eye injury, threatened his career but he overcame that to make a huge impact later as a senior player, not least in New Zealand with England in 1985 when two long distance interception tries earned the nickname ‘Burglar Bill’.