This weekend sees two of the biggest names in global schools rugby go head to head in a 2.30pm Kick Off LIVE on NextGenXV, Millfield and Wellington College.
The game will be available to watch LIVE on the NextGenXV YouTube Channel, as well as through the embedded link below.
Countless players have come through the ranks of both schools to join the professional game and both sides have many in their current sides that could well follow suit in the years to come. Both have started the season well and have been involved in some thrilling games, live and not, already this season.
Millfield kicked off with victories over Hartpury College and Blundell’s, a superb second half earning them victory against Blundell’s. They then suffered defeat to Clifton College, but what a stunning game of rugby it was (see below). Millfield played superbly in the first half but a brilliant second half from Clifton saw the game in the balance. Millfield looked like they might hold on but a heart-breaking try in the final play saw Clifton take a thrilling 43-41 victory.
If you needed to know anything about the resilience of this Millfield group though, you need only look at their response. Back-to-back victories over Christ College and Sherborne to send them into this fixture with a real spring in their step.
Similarly, Wellington College began their season well, with victories over Northampton School for Boys and Whitgift (see below), a couple of games with some stunning rugby in the Indian Summer sun.
Then, like Millfield against Clifton, they took on one of the very best in the country in the form of Harrow and were involved in another thriller. Played on the Harrow 1st XV pitch before the Atlanta Falcons stepped in to borrow it, Wellington College game their all but just missed out 38-31. Again though, like Millfield, they bounced right back with a good win at Dulwich College to head into this game feeling very positive about their rugby.
With both sides therefore heading into this in good form and playing exciting and positive rugby, the sort that both are so renowned for, hopes are for a game that matches the excitement, drama, and raw quality of last year’s thrilling encounter.
Millfield claimed that one at Wellington College’s Bigside Pitch, 31-28 in a game that went right down to the final play (see below). It was the first away win in this fixture since 2016, when Wellington College travelled to the Sir Gareth Edwards pitch and came home with a 35-17 victory.
However, for this particular group of Wellington College players, notably their Lower 6th group, Somerset is a place with happy memories. As U16s and U15s they travelled to Millfield and one. Though Millfield’s U6th group of course have the memories of last year’s incredible 1st XV game, as well as a victory at Wellington College as U16s and a draw there as U14s.
Which is all to say that this year’s game feels as though it really could go either way, and all signs point towards a classic. Little wonder. These two continually produce incredible performances and put together fantastic teams. It is no coincidence that the last three St Joseph’s Festival titles have gone to these two, to Wellington College in 2019 in their first crack at it in well over a decade, and to Millfield in 2021 and 2022, becoming the first side to win back-to-back titles in over a decade and in doing so becoming the outright most successful side in the tournament’s history.
These two are among the schools rugby greats, every time they take to the field it is special, when they do so against one another that level raises even further. Saturday at 2.30pm is not to be missed.
Millfield v Wellington College – LIVE on NextGenXV – Saturday 7th October, 2.30pm KO
