Kirkham Grammar School claimed a maiden St Joseph’s Festival title in the most dramatic of fashions as a clutch Ollie Davies drop goal earned victory for his side in the final, 8-7 against RGS High Wycombe.
It was almost the perfect ending to yet another incredible weekend in this pocket of Suffolk that has become the key post in the schools’ rugby season for the sheer magic and quality that it manages to produce each and every year.
From Trophy to Shield, via Plate and Bowl, the thousands that had flocked to St Joseph’s College witnessed something special this weekend.
In Kirkham Grammar School, they witnessed a side that had given everything in pursuit of this title. They had come close before, a final in their debut season in 2019 and competitive runs in 2021 and 2022. That young side of 2022 won the Sedbergh 10s in March as they matured, and now as a more U6th-based side, they added this St Joseph’s Festival title, and likely think ahead now to a charge at the Continental Tyres Schools Cup, a tournament they have also come close to winning but not quite got over the line in yet.
In Ollie Davies, they had a fitting Player of the Tournament. The conversation around that award had centred very early in the weekend around himself and Millfield’s Steffan Emanuel, such had been the sheer quality on display every time the two had met – Emanuel scoring a beautiful try when the two sides met in an epic semi-final that went down to a penalty shoot-out.
Davies’ heroics got him the nod and he now joins a pantheon of greats immortalised on the St Joseph’s Festival honours list, Marcus Smith and Andy Goode being other notable fly halves to have won that award.
He would be the first to acknowledge that this victory was all about the team though, they had been the talk of the touchlines from Day 1, but in this run, they had to dig deep. Holding on in the semi-final against an epic Millfield performance as they went to Millfield – which means that Millfield still hasn’t lost at the Festival since before Covid – before RGS High Wycombe almost spoiled the Kirkham party in the final as they had Brighton College’s in the semi-final.
RGS High Wycombe’s performances are perhaps an equal achievement to Kirkham’s in winning the Festival. The Buckinghamshire side arrived unbeaten but thrust into the most competitive pool in the competition alongside Kirkham, plus the two Bowl finalists Wellington College and Cheltenham College, the theory was that maybe they had been dealt a tough hand.
How wrong those sentiments were. RGS beat Wellington and Cheltenham to progress to the Trophy and then beat Hampton in their quarter-final, before beating one of the three standout sides of the weekend, Brighton College (Kirkham and Millfield being the others). In the final it looked like the fairytale was on, they led 7-0 and even when Kirkham scored for 7-5 it looked like they might hold on.
Cue Ollie Davies though, and arguably one of the most dramatic St Joseph’s Festival climaxes that there has been.
Millfield sewed up third place with an impressive 19-5 victory over Brighton College to maintain that record of not losing a game since before Covid, though fittingly, given the creativity of their play, Brighton College picked up the Try of the Tournament after an epic Alex Stubbs score v Denstone College on Day 1.
Watch the Try of the Tournament
St Joseph’s College picked up the Plate with a 12-3 victory over Blundell’s. The hosts had been superb all weekend and had one of their best Festivals in years, when St Joseph’s do well at the Festival it is a magical place to be. Hampton picked up third in the Plate, a 20-19 victory over Trinity, whom they had beaten by a point in the Day 1 groups as well.
Wellington College sealed the Bowl title, overcoming a tough opening day to go unbeaten in Day 2, beating the side that got the better of them in the opening game of the weekend, Cheltenham College, 14-7 in the Bowl final. Both were excellent on day 2. Third in that competition went to Strathallan, 12-0 victors over Dulwich College, the Scots were a key side to the general atmosphere and tone of the weekend.
Meanwhile in the Shield Denstone College was delighted to cap a weekend that saw them get better throughout with a 14-7 victory over Whitchurch High to claim that gong, with 3rd going to QEGS Wakefield after an 8-0 victory over RGS Newcastle.
All in all, it was simply one of the great weekends of school rugby. Year on year sixteen teams gather in this pocket on East Anglia – best my injuries, academy absentees, school trips and family holidays, and yet despite all of these obstacles, time and time again utter brilliance and drama are produced.
To see the Kirkham Grammar School celebrations in the end was to witness just how much it takes, how much effort, how much emotional drive, how much courage. All sixteen leave St Joseph’s College knowing that all sixteen have to give that much to it as well.
There is nothing quite like it and no feeling quite like knowing you have given everything. To look at the pride in RGS High Wycombe at what they had done is to know that sometimes winning is not the only thing, it’s the sense that you have given the best of yourselves.
Sometimes though, the winning does matter. And for Kirkham Grammar School that was the case, they knew they were one of the favourites, knew they were playing well, and had been on that journey that we so often see in professional sport where coming close is almost a right of passage before your time comes. This was their time, and when it mattered the most they found a way. The best teams always do.
Two teams came within a whisker, in Millfield and RGS, but these brilliant boys in blue found a way, and in Ollie Davies, they had the man for the moment.
An epic ending to the most epic of St Joseph’s Festivals.
2023 St Joseph’s Festival Results and Standings:
Champions: Kirkham Grammar School
Plate Winners: St Joseph’s College
Bowl Winners: Wellington College
Shield Winner: Denstone College
Player of the Tournament: Ollie Davies (Kirkham Grammar School)
Try of the Tournament: Alex Stubbs (Brighton College vs Denstone College)
Final Standings:
1 Kirkham Grammar
2 RGS High Wycombe
3 Millfield
4 Brighton College
5 St Joseph’s College
6 Blundell’s
7 Hampton
8 Trinity
9 Wellington College
10 Cheltenham College
11 Strathallan
12 Dulwich College
13 Denstone College
14 Whitchurch High
15 QEGS Wakefield
16 RGS Newcastle
De La Salle Trophy Final: Kirkham Grammar School 8-7 RGS High Wycombe
3rd Place
Millfield 19-5 Brighton College
Trophy Semi-Finals
Brighton College 5-12 RGS High Wycombe
Kirkham Grammar 14-14 Millfield (5-4 on pens)
Trophy Quarter Finals
St Joseph’s College 0-5 Brighton College
Hampton 0-10 RGS High Wycombe
Kirkham Grammar 7-0 Trinity
Millfield 17-3 Blundell’s
Plate Final: St Joseph’s College 12-3 Blundell’s
3rd Place
Hampton 20-19 Trinity
Plate Semi-Finals
St Joseph’s College 14-0 Hampton
Trinity 13-15 Blundell’s
Bowl Final: Wellington College 14-7 Cheltenham College
3rd Place
Strathalan 12-0 Dulwich College
Bowl Semi-Finals
Wellington College 5-5 Strathallan (5-4 on pens)
Cheltenham College 8-3 Dulwich College
Bowl Quarter Finals
Whitchurch HS 0-14 Wellington College
Strathallan 12-7 RGS Newcastle
Cheltenham College 15-3 QEGS Wakefield
Dulwich College 3-0 Denstone College
Shield Final: Denstone College 14-7 Whitchurch High
3rd Place
QEGS Wakefield 8-0 RGS Newcastle
Shield Semi-Finals
Whitchurch HS 29-0 RGS Newcastle
Denstone College 14-12 QEGS Wakefield
Final Group Standings
| Pos | Group 1 | Group 2 | Group 3 | Group 4 |
| 1 | Hampton | Kirkham Grammar | Brighton College | Millfield |
| 2 | Trinity | RGS High Wycombe | Blundell’s | St Joseph’s College |
| 3 | Whitchurch High | Cheltenham College | Strathallan | Dulwich College |
| 4 | QEGS Wakefield | Wellington College | Denstone College | RGS Newcastle |
Back