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The highly anticipated World Schools Festival announces top teams from England and South Africa
By Tom Parker
Two of the top rugby sides in the world are among the first schools to be announced in the highly anticipated World Schools Festival tournament.
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Millfield School, from Somerset in England, and Grey College, in Bloemfontein, are both landmark announcements for the festival.
One of the most exciting school rugby tournaments ever to be launched will be held for the first time at Pattana Sports Resort in Thailand between 12th – 17th December.
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This international event will feature eight of the top schools from across the world competing in the Cup competition, with an Open Trophy competition being played alongside. The World Schools Festival will continue to promote and showcase schools rugby.
Millfield were recently named as the number one rugby school in the world by NextGenXV, having enjoyed an unbeaten season in 2021, beating the likes of Sedbergh and Wellington.
The men in green, blue and red have endured a tricky start to 2022, with a surprise defeat to Clifton College. Despite this, they are still the team to beat in school rugby.
Grey College is historically known as the best rugby school in the world.
The college, from Bloemfontein, has long been a benchmark for schools rugby with a historical 91 per cent win rate over 100 years of fixtures.
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By 2022 Grey has produced 115 SA U18s, and 46 Springboks – a clear testament to the quality of the rugby development program.
The last time Grey took part in the festival, they utterly dominated, beating the likes of Hartpury in England 60-0.
Head of rugby at Grey College, Bobby Joubert, was excited about the opportunity of taking part again in the festival.
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“This tournament offers a great opportunity for our players to experience an overseas tour and, more crucially, a chance to grow and expand their skills by playing elite competition in an international arena. Schools rugby is very popular in South Africa, but new competition will certainly put it on an international stage, and promote the exciting, free-flowing nature of rugby played at schoolboy level.”
There are still six more spots available in the festival, and there has been much debate about who may take these final places.
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The top rugby schools from Ireland, England, New Zealand and Australia are also rumoured to be involved, so we await announcements on further teams taking part in the coming days.
When will people realise that grey is only a colour.....?
Go Affies!!!
Just kidding!
I'm sure all the Old Affie Boys support Greys' nomination. Measured by consistency,
Grey is definitely the flagship of schoolboy rugby in South Africa for years/decades?
Go Boys, make us proud.