News & Events
Rugby Team of The Month
At 2.00 pm on Wednesday 18th of January Hereford Cathedral School’s 1st XV Rugby Team play the next round of the Daily Mail Cup competition against their rivals Old Swinford Hospital at Wyeside Sports Ground. If they win this match the team will go on to play in the Cup’s quarterfinal - an achievement that would distinguish them as one of the top eight school boy rugby teams in the country this year.The squad, ably captained by James Lindsay from Longtown, are currently riding a high, having just been named as Rugby Team of the Month for February 2006 by the Rugby World magazine. James attributes this success to the team’s committed squad of players and to the dedication of their coaches –most noticeably Darryl Williams at the U15 level, when this team reached the quarterfinal of the 2003 U15 Daily Mail Cup, and Damian Cummins, the ex Gloucester star and currently Head of PE and Games, who has coached this squad for the last three years.
James rates the team’s chance of success higher than in 2003 due to the added weight and experience brought to the squad by ex-Bishops boys Edward Partridge of Broad Oak and James Shutt of Hereford, and Henry Lort from Weobley. He says ‘every year local rugby talent move to the school in the Sixth Form because of the national reputation of the squad renown for its camaraderie and full integration of new players’.
Camaraderie is central to the Cathedral’s approach to playing rugby, which is purposely developed on tour by Eddie Falshaw, tour manager and back’s coach for this 1st XV. Tours are integral to the development of players; who having experienced the physicality and speed of the host nation on a successful tour to New Zealand last season, choose South West France, against Ondres and Corazze-Nay last October, so that the squad had experience of the maul and shove of a heavy front five.
The Hereford game this year is outstanding with a fast running mobile pack along with a set of backs that can exploit any opening with their brilliant lines of attack. The Abergavenny based Welsh Under 19 Lewis twins Robert and James, from the Dragons Academy, who have both played semi-professional games for Newport and Ebbwvale 1st teams this winter, are brilliantly complimented in the backs by Charlie Meredith and Perry Pudge of the Worcester Academy. Rarely is there an opportunity to see next generation’s stars at their peak of their school boy playing as afforded by the match on 18th January.
The match starts at 2.00pm and refreshments will be provided at Wyeside Pavilion by the Old Herefordians; who warmly invite all to join in and celebrate first class quality rugby at Wyeside by coming and supporting the local team.
