Schools rugby: South side revived for trip to take on Rugby

South Schools are set to make a high-profile return when they play a match against Rugby School next September on the famous ‘Parade’ pitch, the birthplace of the oval ball game.

The link between the Borders schools and Rugby School was established through a scholarship programme between the English public school and Hawick High School, who have three bursary students at Rugby. As a result, Rugby School invited Hawick High School to be their ‘guest’ side next September.

However, Hawick High School rector Alan Williamson, a former top-class referee, felt such a fixture would have been something of a mis-match and instead advocated a revival of the South Schools.

He said: “A lot of our boys leave when they’re 16, so we don’t tend to have a strong first XV. However, I thought this would be an ideal opportunity to revive South Schools and, after speaking to other schools, I got full support.

“I think Scottish rugby is missing a lot by not having representative schools sides. We would hope to get in a couple of games against Edinburgh sides and looking ahead there could be scope for regular fixtures against the better independent schools.”

Williamson added: “We are also planning to have a Bill McLaren/Arnold Foundation sponsorship fund-raising rugby dinner on the eve of the fixture at Rugby School.”

Meanwhile, after another weekend of cancelled matches and with half-term breaks ruling out in some instances the next two weekends, schools rugby has gone into a big freeze.

Short of a rapid thaw, further victims of the cold snap will be the Brewin Dophin Scottish Schools under-18 Plate match between Earlston High School and Madras College tomorrow and Linlithgow Academy v Carrick Academy on Thursday.

Jedburgh Grammar School coach Kevin Barrie has added his weight to calls for summer rugby after his side’s under-16 Plate clash against the Gordon Schools, and the Huntley and Peebles High School v Linlithgow Academy tie were called off on Saturday.

Barrie, who has contacted Murrayfield to hold the game next week on the 4G pitch, said: “Playing there would make it easier for Gordon Schools. Otherwise they would have a five-hour journey to the Borders. We have played only one game since the turn of the year and we simply cannot do proper training at this time of year.”

“Look at rugby league since it moved to the summer. It’s much better. The skill levels in our club game are not good enough and that’s probably down to training in seriously bad conditions.”