Rugby World Cup Fever Hits Merchant Taylors’!

Merchant Taylors’ Boys’ School was delighted to welcome girls and boys from nine local primary schools to take part in a Rugby Tag Tournament to promote the game in the local area on Monday 28th September.

Each school brought a team of 10 players from their Year 6s and the boys and girls played in 4 groups of 4 teams. After the exciting qualifying games Great Crosby RC Primary School took on a Farnborough Road Junior School team in the Plate Final with Merchant Taylors’ taking on Runnymede in the Cup Final. Both finals were exciting to watch and brilliantly played with all the teams having enjoyed a lovely afternoon of rugby.

Merchant Taylors’ rugby continues to thrive under the guidance of Mr Dan King, Head of Rugby, who commented “last season the school played 120 games of rugby with more than 200 pupils taking part. The aim of our festival is to get more children involved in the game. Merchant Taylors’ has excellent links with Waterloo Rugby Club who have a thriving junior section. I hope that the tournament will become an annual event!”

Merchant Taylors’ helped to develop former pupil Ben Kay, the retired England lock. As a small child Ben started playing Mini Rugby for Waterloo Under 9’s and progressed through the School’s teams before joining the Leicester Tigers just before the 1999 World Cup. Ben was rewarded with his first England cap against Canada in 2001 and in 2003 he appeared in his first Grand Slam at the 6 Nations and contributed to England’s first ever Test victory on Australian soil and an away victory against the mighty All Blacks! Ben can now be heard commenting on this year’s World Cup for BT Sport.