Selecting this week’s Top 5 School Teams of the Weekend was, if anything, even tougher than last week’s.

The reason being that there were so many brilliant performances. What we tried to do this week then was to select teams that had either responded brilliantly to setbacks the previous week, continued an impressive start to the season that perhaps was not picked up on loudly after one game, but that after two seems significant, or sides that had simply blown us away with their performance.

In some cases school fulfilled more than one of those criteria, unsurprisingly really as this season has started with an absolute bang. Tries are flowing, the rugby is brilliant, and the competition outstanding.

Top 5 School Teams of the Weekend

Bloxham

Bloxham started their season with a defeat to Magdalen College. So when Saturday’s game against Malvern College came around, few were anticipating a big blowout victory. How wrong we all were, Bloxham won 52-0, inspired by their captain and England U18 hooker (and captain) Alfie Barbeary. It was not the numbers that were impressive though, it was that a week before Malvern had lost just 20-0 to Cheltenham, an unbeaten side last year who are yet to concede this, yet Bloxham put on a further 32. More than all of that though was the impressive nature of a turnaround from defeat the week before to an outstanding win on Saturday.

Felsted

For Bloxham, read Felsted. Felsted suffered a surprise defeat to Norwich on the opening weekend, although by the looks of things Norwich are going to be a side to keep an eye on this year. A match against one of their biggest rivals as a growing force and influence on the school game, Haileybury, on Saturday was a tough follow up then, particularly as Haileybury had won the week before. Feslted rose to the occasion magnificently though, watched by their unbeaten side of 1978 they put on a sparkling display for a truly excellent 45-7 victory.

Millfield

Millfield started the season with a stunning 60-3 victory over Canford. It was outstanding, but with only one game of the season gone, people wanted to know if Millfield were really that good or if it was a bit of a one off. Well, on Saturday Millfield went and did it again, only better. They beat RGS High Wycombe, notoriously one of the toughest sides in schools rugby, by a stunning 80-0 margin. Now it is only early days, perhaps Canford and RGS are in tough years, but they have been very good sides in recent times and Millfield now have 140 points in two games and have conceded just three. What a start to the season. The big games do not let up either, with Clifton College, Wellington College, and Bromsgrove all to come, all three will have seen Saturday’s result come in and taken a large gulp.

St Paul’s

St Paul’s beat Bishop Wordsworth’s 25-12 on Saturday, and impressive result in itself but it gets St Paul’s into our Top 5 School Teams of the Weekend because of the circumstances that came before it. St Paul’s were given a really tough outing in their opening game of the season, conceding over fifty points to Epsom College. So a game against a Bishop Wordsworth’s side that had beaten Sherborne that same weekend was a tough ask. St Paul’s answered all of those questions superbly and bounced back in style to kickstart their campaign and earn a place in our Top 5.

Woodhouse Grove

Last year Woodhouse Grove enjoyed a good season, they were one of the top sides in the region and then won the U18 Schools Plate. They lost their opening two games of the season though, to St Peter’s York and QEGS Wakefield, QEGS would later reach the Schools Cup final. So with those same two fixtures again at the start of this season, and a likelihood that the three would be the best, or at the very least among the best, in the region again, it was a loaded start for Woodhouse Grove. Boy have they delivered. They beat St Peter’s in week one an impressive win but not one for the Top 5, but they backed that up on Saturday with a 31-12 win over QEGS Wakefield. Again on its own it is a strong victory but unlikely to be a Top 5 effort, but what that victory means is what puts them into this week’s Top 5. They have beaten two of the top sides in the country back to back and signaled themselves as a side that everyone is schools rugby needs to keep a real eye on this year.