Haileybury go from VCs to courage of Danny Hearn
Brendan Gallagher continues his series looking at rugby’s great schools
Although also an enthusiastic football school, Haileybury College, just a few miles south west of Hertford, were quick to embrace rugby and, indeed, produced a very early England international in John Batten who was a star turn at the school before moving onto St John’s College Cambridge.
While there he won four straight Blues, playing in the first ever Varsity match in 1872 and captaining the Light Blues in 1874 and 1875. His form in 1874 earned a call-up for England for the Calcutta Cup fixture against Scotland, only the third international fixture ever played, and although he acquitted himself well he had fallen out of favour by the following season.
Another even more notable luminary at the dawn of rugby time was Edward Temple Gurdon who made the then huge number of 16 Test appearances between 1878 and 1886 when he was virtually ever present for England, only finishing on the losing side twice. He was unbeaten in nine games as captain – eight wins and a draw.
Gurdon, a clever athletic forward, was in the same Cambridge side as Batten in 1874 and 1875 and captained the Light Blues in
1875 and 1876.A leading figure at Richmond, who he captained for two seasons, he later served two terms as the RFU president.
To balance those two Cambridge tyros we have Oxford’s William Purdon Green – known just as Willie Green – an Anglo Welshman who formed a famous and often devastating partnership with Ronald Poulton-Palmer that guided Oxford to wins in 1910 and 1911, scoring a hat-trick in the former.
Green was a little mercurial but when he was good he was very good and invariably attracted the attention of the selectors. He played in the first two England trials in 1911 but despite scoring a try in the second match was not invited to attend the final game between England and the Rest. At which point Wales stepped in.
Having played for Newport in their win over the Springboks in 1912 Green made his Wales debut against South Africa later that year, the first of three caps before World War 1 intervened.
Green was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 9th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps on August 21, 1914 and was killed in action on July 31, 1915 at Hooge in Belgium, last seen leading his men in hand-to-hand fighting as they advanced towards ruined village buildings, as you might expect from a school that can point to no fewer than 17 Victoria Cross winners with six in World War 1 alone.
Major John Hope wrote: “Green fought gloriously, and was last seen alive leading his platoon in a charge after being for hours subjected to liquid fire and every device the Germans could bring to bear to break through. Seventeen officers and 333 other ranks of this battalion were killed in this engagement, in which officers and men showed themselves worthy of the best traditions of their Regiment.”
Between the Wars, Haileybury, although still generally competitive, rarely reached the heights and dealing with the peaks and troughs has been part of the Haileybury rugby story.
There was a mini golden period during and immediately after World War 2 and that is reflected by a first ever title at the Rosslyn Park Sevens in 1944 when they beat St John’s Leatherhead in the final. Details of that victory alas seem to have been lost but the College appeared in the final again in 1950 when they lost a gripping final to Rossall 6-5.
On that occasion Haileybury’s strength was their power up front and after a comfortable win in the first round over Brighton College it was a hard fought campaign with narrow wins over Eastbourne, Uppingham, Whitgift and Stonyhurst while the final was another nailbiter.
It was a more than useful period for Haileybury and they were in the frame again the following year before old rivals Stonyhurst did for them in the semi-final.
The next notable period can probably be termed the Danny Hearn era with the former England centre taking over the reins of the First XV despite incurring life changing spinal injuries playing for Midland Counties against
the 1967 All Blacks at Welford Road.
Hearn had been working at the school as a teacher at the time of the accident which resulted in a long, morale testing spell at Stoke Mandeville learning to cope with lifelong disabilities. At all times he enjoyed the support of the school and eventually he returned to Hertfordshire determined to continue his career as a teacher
“I was very lucky to be at Haileybury when the accident occurred, it didn’t phase them one jot,” recalls Hearn. “The headmaster Bill Stewart was one of my first visitors at Stoke Mandeville when I was laying there staring at the ceiling and said there and then that my job would be waiting for me no matter how long it took. That was a huge morale booster.
“When I did finally get back to Haileybury the lads took over and were wonderful. Never underestimate the kids, sorry pupils, because they have a fine sensitivity in these matters. They seemed to just know when I needed to go to the library, or down to the touchline, or needed to rush back up to the school.
“They were there at all times, volunteering to push me on muddy touchlines and help in any way. They anticipated my needs and as any disabled person will tell you the most souldestroying situation is when you have to constantly ask. I never had to ask.” Hearn was a natural coach and, if anything, his forced immobility accentuated his powers of observation and analysis. When he took over as the First XV coach Haileybury’s fortunes started to look up again on the fifteens circuit and spawned two of the schools bigger names – powerful future Rosslyn Park and England centre Peter Warfield and flanker David Cooke.
A fine openside flanker, Cooke was unfortunate enough to coincide with the last four or five years of Tony Neary’s career and the first three of four of Peter Winterbottom’s. Nonetheless he won 12 caps and has one claim to fame that eluded the others, namely he is the only England player to have represented club and country on the same day.
Cooke was playing for Harlequins against the Army on the morning of Saturday, January 5, 1985 when there was a panic in the England camp ahead of their Test against Romania at Twickenham that afternoon.
Gary Rees had started to go down with appendicitis and with no specialist openside in the pack, an SOS was sent out to Quins who dragged Cooke off midway through the first half. Cook had such a fine game that he kept his place in the team for the Five Nations and indeed the summer tour of New Zealand.
Thereafter he was surplus to England requirements but Cooke can reflect on a varied ‘international career’. After falling ill in his first season with Quins he decided to travel for six months and headed to Indonesia to go surfing and find odd jobs. He started playing for the Jakarta club who were invited to form the first Indonesia side for the inaugural Hong Kong Sevens.
Cooke and his travelling buddy David Davies, another Haileybury player, acquitted themselves well and Cooke was invited to stay on and play for Hong Kong against a France XV.
In more recent years future Saracens stalwart and USA Eagles skipper Chris Wyles shone brightly as a centre and then after another quiet period a number of terrific players have come in a rush.
Jamie George was a quality player when he arrived at the Hertfordshire school and was spotted early on by Saracens although Haileybury were not particularly strong during his era in the First XV 2008-9.
George was followed into the England U20 team and the Saracens academy by Matt Hankin, a blockbusting flanker who helped England win the Junior World Cup in 2013. Alas for Hankin he picked up a number of concussions and had to retire in 2018.
Then came Nick Isiekwe who was a massive presence in an outstanding team throughout the 2016-17 season. In the last pre Covid season and with former Wales captain and No.8 Michael Owen at the helm, Haileybury started to threaten the big boys again and bagged a top ten place in the Daily Mail Merit Table.