This Wednesday Haileybury host Stamford at the StoneX Stadium in the Hertfordshire side’s annual fixture at the home of Saracens.
The 7.15pm Kick Off will be live streamed here on NextGenXV and will be available on the NextGenXV YouTube Channel as well as through the embedded video below.
Haileybury’s relationship with Saracens has yielded some fantastic fixtures at the StoneX in recent years, last year a down-to-the-wire 23-19 defeat to Blundells, 2021 a thrilling 13-13 draw with Seaford College, and in 2019 a tight 16-15 victory over Llandovery College. Tight and dramatic games seem to be the default when Haileybury take to the rubber-crumb in North London.
If their start to this season is anything to go by then we should be in for more of the same on Wednesday evening. Haileybury began their season with a tight 22-18 defeat at home to Felsted, and then had the fortunes the other way in an absolutely epic contest at Rugby School, another game live streamed here on NextGenXV which you can relieve below. The Hertfordshire side staged a stunning second half comeback row a brilliant 27-26 victory on the close.
Stamford’s season is only a game old, but it was a game that said plenty about them as they headed to Stowe, one of last year’s top sides, and secured a very impressive 26-13 victory.
They will be heading into the rest of this season with a huge amount of confidence too, not least because last year their U16s, who of course now make up the L6th portion of this 1st XV, went unbeaten, winning 11 of 11. That included a 45-5 victory over Haileybury. However, in a demonstration of Haileybury’s strength, that was Haileybury’s only U16 defeat of the season.
So the younger half of both sides will have every reason to feel confident, and the older half need only look back to this fixture last year, where Haileybury won 30-24 in an absolute thriller at Stamford. It all makes this fixture feel both on a knife-edge, and high level. Interestingly it was the first time in five years that these two had met, Haileybury wining 27-7 in 2017 and Stamford 31-23 in 2016, so Stamford are looking for a first win in this fixture in seven years.
Both sides had real high’s at 1st XV level last year, Haileybury went all the way to the Continental Tyres Schools Plate semi finals last year, while Stamford were the only side in the country to prevent Continental Tyres Schools Cup champions Oakham from winning, holding them to a 29-29 draw.
It all serves to whet the appetite for Wednesday and what should, if history is anything to go by, be an absolute thriller at the StoneX.
Haileybury v Stamford – Wednesday 20th Sept, 7.15pm, StoneX Stadium – LIVE on NextGenXV
