St Joseph's Rugby Festival

The St Joseph's College, Ipswich National Schoolboy Rugby Festival is a major schools rugby union competition in the UK.

The National Schools Rugby Festival was started in 1986 to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of the College. Schools invited to take part come from both the state and independent sectors. The Festival has a track record as a proving ground of future stars: former England captain Chris Robshaw, British and Irish Lion Mako Vunipola, England winger Charlie Sharples, and Zach Mercer, Player of the Tournament 2014, who went on to help England to the World Rugby U20 Championship in June. Mike Tindall is another who trod the St Joseph’s turf. Jonathan Joseph was named player of the tournament for Millfield School. The most recent success is Marcus Smith who won the player of the tournament for Brighton College in 2016, a year later he and Zach Mercer are Eddie Jones' apprentices in the England Training Camps.

16 of the UK's best schoolboy rugby teams, including the hosts St Joseph's, compete in the 2 day competition. On day 1 there are 4 groups of 4, randomly drawn to compete against one another with the top 2 teams from each group going into the De La Salle cup competition on the second day. The bottom 2 teams on the first day go through to the plate competition on the second day.

Past De La Salle winners include John Fisher School, Millfield, Brighton College and St Joseph's College.

The Festival regularly gathers a crowd of 3,000 spectators over the weekend and is streamed online by over 35,000 people.

Player of the Tournament
Year Winner School Ref
2006 Ryan Manyika Brighton College [1]
2007 Luke Plummer Filton College [2]
2008 Jonathan Joseph ( England) Millfield School [3]
2009 Chris Smart Bedford School [4]
2010 Alex Day St Joseph's College [5]
2011 Max Northcote-Green Millfield School [6]
2012 Sam Denham Millfield School [7]
2013 Dan Lewis
Lewis Ludlam ( England)		 St Joseph's College
2014 Zach Mercer ( England) Merchiston Castle School [8]
2015 Roman Malin-Hiscock Hampton School [9]
2016 Marcus Smith Brighton College [10]
2017 Toby Smith Brighton College [11]
2018 Dan John Millfield School

References
  1. "Bumper crowd at rugby festival". Ipswich Star. 16 October 2006. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  2. "Filton take honours at rugby festival". Ipswich Star. 23 October 2007. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
  3. "Famous names can inspire players at St Joseph's Rugby Festival". Ipswich Star. 16 October 2015. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  4. "John Fisher and Dulwich win at national rugby festival". Your Local Guardian. 21 October 2009. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
  5. "Gallery: Rugby festival glory for St Joseph's". East Anglian Daily Times. 18 October 2010. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  6. "Gallery: Plaudits but no title for St Joseph's". Ipswich Star. 18 October 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  7. "GALLERY: St Joseph's College National Schools Rugby Festival". East Anglian Daily Times. 23 October 2012. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  8. "Zach Mercer – England U18s and Bath No.8". The Rugby Paper. 3 July 2015. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  9. "1st XV win St Joseph's Festival". Hampton School. 22 October 2015. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  10. "St Joseph's Festival: Dramatic finish to a wonderful 30th St Joseph's Festival". Fifteen Rugby. 16 October 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  11. "Brighton College take top honours at St Joseph's College Rugby Festival". Ipswich Star. 24 October 2017. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.