Brendan Gallagher begins a new series looking at rugby's great schools
THE Millfield 1st XV, like most schools, have enjoyed highs and lows with vintage seasons set against some less than stellar years. What has been remarkable, however, is their consistent excellence at Sevens for over 50 years with a record 13 wins in the Open tournament at Rosslyn Park 7s, which continues to be the blue riband in the abbreviated game.
The year group that really started that 7s tradition and also established Millfield – a very young almost upstart school compared with established giants – as a force in 15s was that of Gareth Edwards.
Edwards was a phenomenal talent – both as an athlete and rugby player – but that side of 1964-66 had other weapons in their armoury. Fellow Welshman Vaughan Williams, who passed away earlier this year, was another stellar prospect while big Rod Speed – the British Schools shot putt champion – was a powerhouse forward who played for Bristol before embarking on a long teaching and coaching career back at Millfield.
Nick Williams, now a hugely successful businessman based in Cardiff, was very quick as well having sprinted for Wales, and Jeremy Blackie, who went on to sell bespoke kitchens, was a fine playmaker in the backs.
Roger Brown skippered the Seven that eventually landed that first title at Rosslyn Park in 1966. He had been the scrumhalf before the arrival of Edwards saw him switch to centre with notable success. In civvie street he went on to become a long haul pilot with British Airways. Nick Durlston was a powerhouse centre who played prop in Sevens while hooker Jimmy Vaughan came from a Colombian-Welsh family and has been long retired in the Bahamas where team members have been known to drop in.
That XV came and went and although Millfield were always a power in Sevens – the class of 1987 are considered a particularly blistering and underrated squad – it was a long wait before the next truly vintage XV came along in 2003-4 when Chris Robshaw captained a formidable side that also included Olly Morgan and Anthony Allen. In fact that year Millfield boasted seven players who played age group rugby for England U18, U16 and U16B.
Then another pause before perhaps the best ever Millfield team, certainly the greatest gathering of talent. The 2011 team featured Mako Vunipola, Jonathan Joseph, Rhys Ruddock, Henry Thomas, Chris Cook and Ollie Lynday-Hague and when they were in the mood they could be devastating.
“I achieved the near impossible and managed to coach that side to a couple of defeats which given the talent available takes some doing,” recalls master in charge John Mallet, a member of that very useful 1987 XV. “When they were fully focussed though that was some team.” This season's XV were pretty tasty as well including no fewer than five age group internationals.
Will Joseph – brother of Jonathan – and Ewan Richards earned recognition for England U18 while Tom Cowan and Oliver Burrows played for Wales U18 and fly-half Dan John got the call by Wales U20.
You could be mistaken for thinking it's all ridiculously simple for Millfield but that wouldn't quite be accurate. The school motto is Molire molendo which loosely translated means ‘success by grinding'. No gain without pain. Despite Millfield being one of the wealthiest independent schools, rugby there also has its challenges.
Rugby does not rule the roost at Millfield – young Olympians are doing their stuff on campus in over 20 sports – and there will be outstanding athletic talent resident at the school that the rugby coaches might view with a little envy. At most big ‘rugby schools' in the UK everybody is filtered through to the showpiece 1st XV but at Millfield it's not that simple. Millfield usually have a sprinkling of exceptional players but they don't have the playing numbers down the school that many can boast.
“Another thing which has to be factored in is our commitment to concentrating on fifteens for just the one autumn term,” continues Mallett. “Part of the school's ethos is to let students experience other sports and develop different groups of friends. Chris Robshaw and Olly Morgan for example were both really decent hockey players, in fact Olly could almost certainly have been capped by England at age group level had he not committed to rugby.
“In modern times we have also tried to appreciate what high level athletes we are dealing with and that means not more than one game a week if possible. That can be tricky because over the decades we have inherited a mighty fixture list and what with Daily Mail Cup/Trophy games we can be looking at 20+ matches before the end of the autumn term. So we have to share the workload.
“We like to win but winning isn't everything here. It is much more important for us to see players enjoying themselves and developing.”
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