Chronicle Summer 2023

60 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Rugby By Head of Rugby, Joe Winpenny

The Rugby Club saw some major changes at the start of the 2022 15-a-side season as I joined as the the School’s first Rugby Professional. Alongside this appointment the Rugby Club saw some new additions to the coaching team – Seb Symington, Jack Fairbrother, Juanma Gomez, Henry Irving, Marco Narajos, Lisa Elkins, Oliver Coulson, and Euan and Arthur Friend all joined the team. For some of them this was their first foray into rugby coaching, and they all acquitted themselves superbly throughout the season. The most significant change, however, was having former Heads of Rugby overseeing different age groups. Rob Cottrell oversaw the Yearlings, Willem Truter looked after the Junior Colts and Andrew Grounds took an overview of the Colts. Having this focal point at each age level has meant that we have been able to identify talent earlier and ensure that the pupils are playing in the appropriate teams based on skill level and experience. This has been evident particularly with the Colts where we have been able to identify a group of pupils who look capable of playing 1st XV Rugby next season early and we have been able to look at Individual Development Plans with these boys. The Head of Strength and Conditioning Tom Greensmith has been seeing the group once a week for additional S&C sessions in order to prepare them for the 2023 season.

Egor Varivoda, Archie Crawford, Olly Gurney and Joss Harrison on Upper 1

Senior Rugby The 1st XV captained by Bertie Withers Green (Sing’s), ably assisted by Vice-Captain Archie Crawford (Kendall), enjoyed a much-improved season under the new look coaching team of Mark Hanslip, Andrew Goldsmith and Joe Winpenny. ‘Bringing Pride into the Jersey’ was the theme for the season and the boys came up with their own values and standards to work towards. Their key words for the season were ‘passionate’, ‘respected’, ‘inspiring’, ‘driven’ and ‘enjoyable’. The boys really embraced their self-chosen set of values, something that was highlighted in a 41-19 win against Uppingham and a 26-27 loss to Stowe. The fixture against Uppingham was for many of the boys their first ever win on Upper 1 and despite the result against Stowe it was extremely

pleasing to run a top 10 rugby school so close. The start of the Summer Term has given the coaching team an opportunity to develop next year’s leaders from the Lower Sixth and also transition a talented Fifth Form group into the senior squad with twice weekly Strength & Conditioning sessions run by Mr Greensmith and a weekly on-field session. This will enable us to imbed lots of learning and details from this year so that we can hit the ground running come August. Next year’s Senior Squad look to be very enthused with over 40 boys registered and attending these sessions in the first few weeks. The 2nd XV started the season in fine fashion with strong wins over Pangbourne (48-0) and MCS (36-5), however the

second half of the season saw some more challenging fixtures against some strong opposition. Despite the results some of the performances were pleasing and we have seen some of the boys develop well who will push for 1st XV selection next season. The 3rd XV had a successful season under the watchful eye of coaches Oliver Barstow and Jack Davies winning six out of their 10 fixtures, with wins against MCS (62-0), Cheltenham (24-10) and Uppingham (34-14). There have also been several players that have represented the Midlands Rugby Academy this season – Charlie Mason, Matt Sell, Oliver Sedgwick and Egor Varivoda. Charlie has also been involved in a number of England Rugby Pathway events.