Sedbergh had full set of England captains
Brendan Gallagher continues his series looking at rugby’s great schools
IT is perhaps no surprise that two of the hottest young prospects in the Premiership are recent pupils at Sedbergh School: Sale’s Cameron Redpath and Josh Hodge who has just moved from Newcastle to Exeter.
Both are set to take theleague by storm and are the latest in a distinguished conveyor belt of rugby talent from the Cumberland School which includes Grand Slam skippers Wavell Wakefield and Will Carling, World Cup winner Will Greenwood, England centre and RFU president John Spencer, former Scotland captains Fred Turner and Mike Biggar, dashers like James Simpson-Daniel and Premiership warhorses such as Phil Dowson and Carl Fearns.
Historically Sedbergh have always been strong, but in recent seasons they have surpassed themselves. Back-to-back winners of the prestigious Rosslyn Park Sevens in 2018 and 2019, they also topped the Daily Mail Merit Table in 2017-18 and again the following year and with just one defeat they were in the running again last season behind eventual winners Cranleigh.
Sedbergh have become the school to beat, the big match of the season for mighty rugby schools such as Millfield and Wellington College.
The 2017-18 side –featuring centre Redpath and full-back Hodge – was considered a particularly fine vintage, going unbeaten in 16 games and clinching the Daily Mail Trophy after the school had finished runners-up on three occasions with an eye popping 52-12 victory over mighty Millfield, one of the most remarkable performances on the schools’ circuit in recent years.
Wins like that against such quality opposition don’t come around too often. There were nine tries spread around the team with two each for wings James Magee and Alex Mullins and others from scrum-half Tom Walsh, lock Rouban Birch, full-back Hodge, prop Bevan Rodd and No.8 Rob Farrer.
Sedbergh were undefeated the following year and only lost one game last season. These are halcyon days indeed. Always strong at Fifteens they have set themselves the task of breaking into the MillfieldWellington duopoly on the Sevens circuit and are making a pretty good fist of it.
It all started back in 1879, just eight years after the RFU was formed when Sedbergh staged their first match, against Windermere College. Ten years later they had a school song – Winder – to sing when they won and by 1897 they boasted their first international – Scotsman R C Stevenson.
The Scottish link has always been important and next came two giants of the Scottish game, JMB Scott and F H Turner. Scott was one of the most influential figures before WW1 and a star member of the Sedbergh side in 1903 and 1904 before captaining the XV in 1905.
Scott was always credited as being the best of the dribbling Scotland forwards whose fancy
footwork played havoc with defences, hence the old cry “Feet Scotland”. In 1922 He wrote an authoritative book Rugby Football and how to play it and was a man the young Wavell Wakefield looked up to when he dropped into the school to give talks and help coach the side.
Turner – another future Scotland captain – overlapped Scott briefly in 1905 before becoming Sedbergh’s go-to player in 1906 and 1907 when he captained the side. He famously skippered Scotland in their last Test before the War, against England, when he invited his opposite number Ronnie Poulton Palmer to stop off on the way home to compete in the Wilson Ten, the famous Sedbergh school hill race. Both were killed in Flanders.
Then came the Wakefield era while the school continued to compile honours in the 20s and 30s. Their clubhouse the Buskholm Pavilion – now named the Wakefield Pavilion – was opened in 1928 while throughout the 30s the school lost only five games.
There were four former Sedbergh players in the 1932 Varsity match, something which they also achieved in 1948 while in the 1950s they began a series of challenge matches against Blackrock in Dublin who remain on their fixture list. An estimated 6,000 fans attended the first game in 1953, a 5-5 draw at Donnybrook which raised over £250 for charity.
In slightly more modern times John Spencer was an outstanding product, heading a list of quality centres that were to follow. Carling represented the side for three seasons although he didn’t get to captain them in the Michaelmas term which is when they play the matches that count. He did lead England Schools to a Grand Slam though in his time there.
Will Greenwood was another as was James Lofthouse who was preferred to Jonny Wilkinson at ten by the England Schools XV in 1996-7. That was the season that Sedbergh could boast the England captain in Carling, the England A captain in Greenwood and the England schools captain in Lofthouse.
More recently there was a first Rosslyn Park title in 2000 with James Simpson-Daniel to the fore and an unbeaten XV in 2003 and a record 39 consecutive victories encompassing the two unbeaten seasons of 2006 and 2007.
There was also a six-year run of being unbeaten at home between 2004-6 and with the school becoming co-educational they also celebrated their first Women’s international in England speedster Abbi Scott.