The first live school fixture of the season here on NextGenXV takes place on Saturday afternoon as Rugby School host Oakham School at 3.30pm.
The game pits the founder of the sport against the reigning Continental Tyres U18 Schools Cup champions and can be viewed LIVE on the NextGenXV YouTube Channel and by clicking on the embedded video below.
NextGenXV are live streaming every single one of Rugby School’s fixtures in 2023 as part of the continuing 200 year celebrations of the game, which has already seen a number of special occasions this year, including the Global Pass, Legends Matches, a Bicentenary triple-header, and Charity Vets, U14s, U11s, and U9s 7s, as well as the hugely successful U18 International 7s, which drew an astonishing 43,000 viewers from around the world.
As part of those celebrations, every single Rugby School 1st XV game this year is a home game, allowing all of their opponents to play on the place where it all began Old Bigside pitch on The Close at Rugby School.
That means opportunities for Haileybury, Bedford, Oundle, Eton College, Stowe, Ipswich, Wellington College, Stamford, Bromsgrove, Marlborough College, Uppingham, Warwick, Finborough, and Cheltenham College on the live broadcasts, alongside all of our other live streamed games from around the rest of the country throughout the season.
First of all though it’s an opportunity for Rugby School and Oakham School on Saturday, two schools that have been so closely matched in recent times. In their last five meetings Rugby have won three and Oakham two, with Oakham winning this fixture last year 29-14.
They met twice in 2021, Rugby winning 26-14 at Oakham ‘s Doncaster Close before Oakham gained revenge on The Close in the Cup 36-26. In 2019 they met twice as well, a strong win for Rugby earlier in the season before a much tighter one, 13-8, in the Cup later in the season.
So this is a well balanced fixture, and always has been. Rugby, under Director of Rugby Mike Bayley, are going to be enormously up for this. These bicentenary celebrations are an enormous occasion at the school and the each and every player that pulls on the white shirt is going to want to leave it in a good place in such a special year with so much focus on it.
Oakham, under new Director of Rugby Rupert Harden, who steered Denstone College to a strong season last year, are going to have a big point to prove as well. They had a fun tour of South Africa this summer following last year’s brilliant Continental Tyres Schools Cup winning campaign, and will want to demonstrate fully that it was no flash in the pan campaign.
Everything points to a ripper of a game to kick off the 2023/24 Schools Rugby campaign here on NextGenXV.
Head to Head Last 5 Games:
Rugby (3): 2021 26-10 (A), 2019 40-17 (H), 2019 13-8 (H, Cup)
Oakham (2): 2022 29-14 (A), 2021 36-26 (A, Cup)
Next Fixtures:
Rugby v Haileybury (Live)
Oakham v Old Swinford Hospital
Director of Rugby
Rugby – Mike Bayley
Oakham – Rupert Harden
