Harrow have secured the 2023 NextGenXV Schools Rugby Table after an unbeaten season that has also seen them secure back to back Daily Mail Trophy titles and a place in the semi finals of the Continental Tyres Schools Cup.
That semi final place came after a quarter final victory over the previously unbeaten Ipswich (see below). In so doing they sealed top spot ahead of Kirkham Grammar School, also unbeaten and into the Cup semi finals, by 69 points – a points differently larger than that between Kirkham in second and Millfield in seventh, that is the scale of Harrow’s achievement this year.
Harrow’s title winning finish was all but confirmed last week but there were I’s to be dotted and T’s to be crossed, with a further fifty fixtures to be played after that 11th December update.
Those fifty fixtures did not change the lay of the land too much, but they did mean entries into the Top 25 for Durham and Mill Hill, Durham rising to 24th, Mill Hill to 26th, while Seaford College, Kingswood, and Haileybury all rose a place each to 21st, 22nd, and 23rd overall.
Elsewhere in the Top 100 there were big rises for Mount St Mary’s College, Worth, Reed’s, and Manchester Grammar School, while St Benedict’s, Portsmouth Grammar, and Emanuel all had such significant rises that they surged into the Top 100 – so much so for St Benedict’s that they finished in 86th.
At the top end of the table things had been stable for much of the last few weeks, Bromsgrove’s unbeaten season – a season that will continue with a Cup semi final after Christmas – sees them finish in 10th, and in a sign of just how close things have been this season they finish just a fraction of a point behind Sedbergh in 9thand a mere six off Wellington College in 8th.
Tight and unpredictable. Those have been the bywords for this season. Look to the gap between 6th and 7th, Eton College and Millfield – three points. The margins are slimmer than the rewards were for winning games. This was the season where, Harrow and Kirkham Grammar School aside, on any given Saturday anything could happen.
The difference right at the top, ultimately, was the sheer challenge of the fixtures that Harrow took on. This incredible group has hit heights beyond belief this year, that quarter final performance chief among them. Such has been their form that the equivalent gap between them and 10th and the side in 11th and a side below, would leave 11th placed Stamford in 30th.
Extraordinary does not even cover it. Rosslyn Park National School 7s champions, Colts Rosslyn Park National School 7s champions, back to back Daily Mail Trophy champions, and now NextGenXV Schools Rugby Table winners.
Perhaps the Continental Tyres U18 Schools Cup may yet be heading their way – and en route to that point a showdown with Kirkham Grammar School.
How tantalising a prospect that matchup would be.
NextGenXV Schools Rugby Table 18/12/2023 – Final Standings
| Position | School | ELO Points |
| 1 | Harrow | 1,574 |
| 2 | Kirkham Grammar | 1,505 |
| 3 | Ipswich | 1,490 |
| 4 | Brighton College | 1,482 |
| 5 | Clifton College | 1,458 |
| 6 | Eton College | 1,443 |
| 7 | Millfield | 1,440 |
| 8 | Wellington College | 1,429 |
| 9 | Sedbergh | 1,423 |
| 10 | Bromsgrove | 1,423 |
| 11 | Stamford | 1,380 |
| 12 | Hurstpierpoint College | 1,362 |
| 13 | Trinity | 1,361 |
| 14 | Oakham | 1,343 |
| 15 | Cranleigh | 1,316 |
| 16 | Sir Thomas Rich’s | 1,296 |
| 17 | Denstone College | 1,289 |
| 18 | Whitgift | 1,285 |
| 19 | King’s Macclesfield | 1,278 |
| 20 | Stowe | 1,277 |
| 21 | Seaford College | 1,276 |
| 22 | Kingswood | 1,274 |
| 23 | Haileybury | 1,253 |
| 24 | Durham | 1,252 |
| 25 | Mill Hill | 1,251 |
Click here for the full Top 100: NextGenXV Schools Rugby Table Top 100