Burke’s law has turned Epsom into champions

Brendan Gallagher continues his series looking at rugby's great schools

Flyer: Kitan Ojo in action against Wellington Inset, below: Paul Burke

THIRTY years ago Paul Burke was captaining Epsom College as well as playing fly-half for the England Schools 18 Group so there is an element of life turning full circle now that he is back as director of rugby at the Surrey school who continue to punch well above their weight on one of the toughest of circuits.

In between times he enjoyed a distinguished career that straddled the amateur and professional eras with spells at Loughborough University, London Irish, Munster, Bristol, Cardiff, Harlequins and finally Leicester Tigers where he also served as assistant coach to Richard Cockerill. There were also 13 caps for Ireland during which he clocked up 108 points.

Burke returned to Epsom in 2015 and took over the role of director of rugby in 2016 and, in the last two seasons in particular, Epsom have begun to flex their muscles impressively, reaching the final of the Champions Cup in 2018, when they lost a spectacular game against Wellington College 24-16, and then reaching the semi-final last season when Wellington again accounted for them in a fine encounter. They are beginning to keep very good company indeed.

Burke is also in an ideal position to compare the two eras of schoolboy rugby, separated by three decades: “I'm in awe at the overall quality of schools rugby at present, there are so many outstanding teams, being trained and coached at the highest level.

“In terms of fitness, power and pace there is no comparison.

The current generation are way ahead of us and it makes for a spectacular brand of rugby and a number of schools, including ourselves, now have players attached to Premiership academies so that adds an extra dimension. Many schools also have fitness coaches, analysts and even a physio which makes for a much more ‘professional' approach. In my day the physio was the reserve guy who came on with a bucket and sponge when you got injured.

“In terms of skills I think my era still shaded it. I don't really recall ever doing specific fitness training back in the day, we concentrated almost totally on honing and perfecting the core skills, drilling moves. I played in England schools' teams with the likes of Richard Hill, Matt Dawson, Kyran Bracken, Tim Stimpson – and they and others were incredibly skilful players.

We added the physicality to our games when we moved through Uni or joined senior clubs.

“It's something I try to be aware of coaching now, especially as I arrived at Epsom directly from an elite club set-up at Leicester. Don't ever neglect the skills even if being fitter and faster seems a shortcut to success.

The skills are what set you apart in the end.” Burke certainly has some prime material to work with at present with two lower sixth students – Tom Lynagh and Kitan Ojo – being among the most exciting schoolboy backs in the country. Tom, like his Wallaby father Michael, is a fly-half with all the skills while Kitan – currently recovering from a nasty Achilles injury – has explosive pace and running power.

They were stand-outs all last season as were powerful Wales U18 centre Bryn Bradley and No.8 and captain Makeen Alikhan who has also been staring for Quins Academy.

Mobility and speed was the team's great strength and their only defeats – against Cranleigh and Wellington in the Champions Cup final – came when they struggled for primary possession against bigger packs.

Even against the latter, although losing 41-24, Epsom managed to fire plenty of defiant shots and helped themselves to four tries.

Unsurprisingly given the raw material available, Epsom were planning a major assault on the Rosslyn Park Sevens which has not been a particularly happy hunting ground and it was looking highly promising when they defeated great rivals Cranleigh in the final of this year's Surrey Sevens, one of the most competitive tournaments ahead of Rosslyn Park.

It was their second consecutive Surrey title – they also beat Cranleigh in 2018 – and indeed over the last two years Epsom have lost only four out of 49 Sevens games in all tournaments.

Covid-19, alas, intervened this year to thwart them in what was shaping up to be the most competitive tournament in years but with Lynagh and Ojo available again next season hope springs eternal.

On the subject of Sevens, the abbreviated game provides the basis of Epsom's girls programme which they are trying to expand although finding suitable opponents is proving a challenge. Between 50 and 60 girls play at the school and after Christmas a programme of four or five Sevens tournaments provides the centerpiece of their season with a semi-final at Rosslyn Park last year. Flying wing Grace Crompton has played for the England women U18 and U20 Sevens sides and Elinor Nigrelli has been another standout.

In total, Epsom reckon on putting out 23 teams most match days with Burke, as well as concentrating on the Senior XV, helping out as the assistant coach with the U12As. As a very wise man – Ray French the longtime coach at Cowley HS – once said “the two most important sides at any school are the First XV and the U12As!” Although rugby has featured prominently at the school for well over 100 years Epsom, until recently, have lacked many notable rugby alumni. Burke would appear to be the first full international produced by the school although Jason Hoad around that era was also a highly regarded player. Epsom were always solid, difficult to beat, stalwarts of the incredibly strong Surrey schools circuit.

In recent years, though, they have stepped up a level with the outstanding 2007-8 side, coached by former director of rugby Andy Wolstenholme, providing the breakthrough. That side featured three future Quins players – George Lowe, Joe Trayfoot and Chris York – and were only denied a perfect 100 per cent record when they lost a Daily Mail trophy game against one of Wellington's strongest modern day sides 16-13.

With Lowe leading the way behind the scrum that Epsom side hit you from all quarters and amassed 475 points in their 13 games which included three very demanding games during a pre-season tour of Limerick and Connacht.

A few years later came another good crop, this time including Kyle Sinckler, another who signed for Quins, the start of a career which has seen him achieve so much with England and the Lions. Epsom also had two other representative players in that year group with centre Ben Francis playing for Scotland U17 and wing Tom Flynn an age group representative for the USA.

Sinckler, who had already been capped by England U16, joined the school on a sixth form scholarship and enjoyed two years at the school as a border in Glanville House. He was a major success in the Lower Sixth but missed much of the following season with a knee injury before returning in time to make an impact with the Sevens team.

After the 2017 Lions tour, Sinckler visited Epsom to present the school with his Lions shirt.

He said: “My whole experience of Epsom was incredible. I came from a very different background and wasn't sure what to expect from a boarding school.

Epsom opened me up to a whole new world of first-class facilities – I couldn't believe what I had access to each day.”