Merchiston impress in ‘gruelling’ tournament

Merchiston Castle School produced another impressive set of results at the annual St Joseph’s rugby festival in Ipswich played over Saturday and Sunday.

The tournament, featuting some of the UK’S best rugby schools including Millfield and the winners, Royal Grammar School, Newcastle, is a tough test for young players.

Merchiston won their group stage with a clean sweep then performed competitively in the Cup stage on Sunday.

“Overall we performed very well.” said the Merchiston coach, Roddy Deans, the former Hawick and South flanker. He added: “The speed and width with which we played impressed other coaches. Ultimately we probably lost out on physicality.

“On Sunday we came up against Denstone. They were huge but we battled hard. I’m very proud of the boys in the way they performed in an extremely gruelling tournament.”

Merchiston started the tournament with a 19-10 win over John Fisher School, then defeated Whitchurch High School 20-7. In their final group match Merchiston won 12-7 against hosts St Joseph’s College.

The top two sides in each of the four groups were then put into two pools of four for Sunday’s matches, the winners of which contested the Cup final. Merchiston made a promising start by defeating Hurstpierpoint College 17-7 but, against a heavier Denstone side, the Colinton school lost 14-24.

That loss effectively put Merchiston out of contention for the Cup final and so for the third tie, against RGS Newcastle, Deans opted to field a “younger” side, who in his words, “stuck in well” in their 0-23 defeat by the Newcastle school.

RGS won the title with a 17-9 final victory over past winners, Millfield.

Merchiston’s under-15 squad, coached by former Ulster player, Stephen Douglas, won the Langley tournament with victories over Abingdon School (490), Dulwich College (22-5), Bedford School (37-7) and the hosts, Langley (37-0).