Jerry Page's History of Rugby at Woolverstone Hall

The beginning of the 70's were extremely successful and also saw the emergence, again, of some junior sides producing some memorable results. The Ist XV in 1970/71 won all of its 11 matches. There was one game against a 'J C Morris XV' which was drawn 6 - 6 which I have not included in the statistics in the Appendices. Whilst Mr. Morris, history master and Assistant House Master of Berners, placed for Ipswich 1st XV, I think this was a fun game with invited friends and as such I deem it not to have been a competitive game. The U13 XV that year proved too strong, as well, for all of their opponents, winning all of their 10 games with points for 349 and only 9 against, having won 3 out of 3 the previous year as U12's. Impressive stuff. Colours were awarded in 1970/71 to the following (take a deep breath!) Blease, Joly, Redpath, Waight, James, Coote, Carlile, Fuzzey, Withers, Owen and Dawlings.

1972/73: In 1971/72 the 1st XV again won all its games - also 11 as the previous year - and also won both the Ipwich and Oxford Sevens Senior B Section (see section re Sevens later). One new fixture that year was against the Royal Navy U19 team prior to its annual game against the Army at Twickenham. In act this is the one game I managed to play, owing to the absence of a regular player, and I must admit I felt really proud to represent the school, having been nothing of a sportsman at Woolverstone. We won a very exciting game 30 - 6 and I hope I did my bit for the team. I recall David Waight was sensational that game and ran the Navy boys ragged. Great stuff.

Mention must be made that year of the U14 XV - bear in mind my comments re the U13 XV the previous season. How about this for a set of results:

Was this the most successful side of all? Even allowing for the fact that during this season the points for a try was increased to 4, the above results are tremendous. This year was also quite successful for the U13 XV which won 10 of its 12 games with points for 328 and 75 against. The bizarre thing is, this team lost their first two games without scoring a single point yet conceded 42! They, perhaps, can claim to be the most improved team! I wonder if they turned up for the first two games. In addition to this success we can add the U12 XV this season, for they won all their 5 games scoring 179 points with only 7 against - not a bad start by any means.

No colours were awarded this year - or at least no mention is made. Perhaps some of the junior teams could have been considered.

1973/74: This trend continues in the following season 1973/74. The 1st XV, even with some of the Colts from the previous season, did not even have their results published although from the Janus comments, it appears they did win 7 games out of 12. The Colts won 8 of their 9 games scoring 270 points against 49. The U14 XV won all their 14 games scoring 447 points against 88. The U13 XV won all their 11 games scoring 492 points against 25. The U12 XV won 6 of their 7 games scoring 144 points against 40.

As in the previous 2 years, no colours appear to have been awarded in 1973/74.

1974/75: The 1st XV's results in 1974/75 were somewhat better than previous years, partly no doubt as a result of the natural progression of the very successful younger sides of a few seasons earlier. After losing their first game by 4 points, the school went on to win 9 of their 11 games although suffered a fairly heavy defeat at the hands of Wymondham who were very strong that year. There were again good results in the junior sides that year. The Colts won all their 10 games, the U14 XV won 9 out of 10 (having lost I game by only I point!!), the U13 XV won all of their 9 games and the U12XV won all their 5 games. Again a remarkable achievement.

Colours were awarded, I believe, to Kelleher that year, given his progression to the final trial for English Schools 19 Group, although not mentioned in Janus.

1975/76: Arguably season 1975/76 was one of the most successful years for the 1st XV winning 15 out of 16 games but, for the first time this XV went on tour and chalked up a most impressive win at Millfield by 11 points to 4. Whilst they lost to St. Brendan's Bristol, one further tour success was a victory over Reading. Colours were awarded to Budden, Davis, Grimley, Hayter, Brown and Ruffle. The junior sides were again highly successful with the Colts winning all their 11 games, the U14 XV 'winning all their matches', although no details of how many games played or scores are given. The U13 XV won their 7 games. The U12 XV won 3 games but suffered 2 close defeats.

1975/76: The last season of this report 1976/77 saw the 1st XV win 8 of their 11 games with 2 drawn games and I game lost by a single point. The only undefeated team this year was the Colts who won all 11 of their games although the U14 XV only lost I game, winning 13 out of 14.

Colours were awarded to Thomas, Taylor, Mirza, Halliday and Thompson.

Woolverstone Hall School Rugby - 1951 to 1976 - by Jerry Page