The Schools Championship returns on Saturday for Round 3 as Wellington College host Millfield at their famous Bigside ground from 2.30pm.
As with every game in The Schools Championship, you will be able to watch it all live here on NextGenXV either by heading to our YouTube channel, following us on TikTok, or by clicking play on the embedded video below.
The Schools Championship this year sees four teams competing in a league format for the title, Millfield, Sedbergh, Wellington College, and Whitgift, playing their regular season games against one another.
So far there have been two rounds, with round 3 on Saturday, and rounds 4, 5, and 6 coming after the half term break; with Millfield hosting both Whitgift and Sedbergh, and Wellington College meeting Sedbergh at Broadstreet RFC, as the two sides always do.
Saturday will be Millfield’s first taste of The Schools Championship, though they have some experience having played Clifton College in a showcase game up at Sedbergh in the opening weekend. That game, which you can see again below, was a serious game of rugby, with Millfield holding out well against a really strong Clifton side before eventually falling to a 31-19 defeat.
Since then Millfield have been looking good, a tight defeat to Welsh giants Coleg Sir Gar sandwiched between impressive victories over Blundell’s and Sherborne. That Sherborne game was, incredibly, their only home game of this opening half of term. Millfield certainly cannot be accused of being afraid of travel in their quest to challenge themselves ever further.
For Wellington College it is a second foray into The Schools Championship, they took part in an absolute thriller in Round 2, traveling to Whitgift and winning a topsy-turvy game 29-28, with an inspired performance from Rory Taylor at fly half and a pacy brace of trys from winger Tyler Offiah, you can see the game again below.
That game put Wellington College level on points with Sedbergh at the top of the table, there are three points for a win, one for a draw, one for four trys in a game and one for a defeat by seven or under, but behind on points difference. Leaving Whitgift in third with two points from their two games, and Millfield awaiting their first points given that they are yet to play.
The Schools Championship Table
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | BP | Points |
| 1 | Sedbergh | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| 2 | Wellington College | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| 3 | Whitgift | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 4 | Millfield | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Preview
The game itself looks set to be a classic, it almost always is. 2021 was one of the great schools rugby contests, both sides gave absolutely everything in a game of high-level end to end action that looks both physically and mentally exhausting. Murdoch Lock excelled at scrum half for Wellington College, but an absolute wonder-try from Millfield’s Amir Sultan-Edwards sealed a thrilling 26-20 victory.
It was a first win for Millfield over Wellington College since 2018, Wellington beat them twice in 2019, once in the regular season and then once in the St Joseph’s Festival en route to the 2019 title.
That St Joseph’s Festival element adds even more tension to Saturday’s drama, as both sides will be at the Festival – all of which you will be able to watch LIVE here on NextGenXV – and both will be among the favourites. Indeed these are the two most recent champions, after Wellington College’s 2019 title, 2020 and 2021 were lost to Covid, and then in 2022 Millfield turned up and put in a stunning display to claim the title, one of their many stops en route to being named our team of the season.
These are two of the finest teams in any season, the list of former players from these two schools now operating in the Gallagher Premiership is quite simply astonishing. Be sure to tune in on Saturday because, without doubt, you will be witnessing a number of future Premiership stars again. Not only that, but two of schools rugby’s finest exponents, two sides that love to play exciting rugby, and a game that should match every inch of that ambition.
