Preview: 2025 Sedbergh Super 10s | Live Rugby

The 2025 Sedbergh Super Tens takes place on Sunday 30^th and Monday 31^st March, and this year is a particularly special one, with Sedbergh School celebrating its 500^th anniversary.

The 10s will play a huge role in those celebrations, being one of the jewels in the crown of the schools rugby calendar and given Sedbergh’s outstanding rugby heritage.

Perhaps more than that though, the 10s will also be a final farewell to Sedbergh’s Director of Rugby, Simon ‘Knoxie’ Mulholland, who moves back to New Zealand after 12 years at the helm with Sedbergh, one of the true greats of schools rugby. Over that period over fifty schoolboy internationals have been under his guidance, many going on to full honours, while achieving numerous Rosslyn Park, Daly Mail Trophy, and indeed Sedbergh 10s titles, including a memorable treble in 2018, to go along with a similar list of achievements with the younger age-groups. It has been an incredible tenure.

The excitement is going to be ramped up too, with the news that Mulholland’s replacements have been announced. Former Sedbergh pupil and current staff member Sam Moore, the former Sale Sharks, Cardiff Blues, and England U20 back rower, will head up rugby at Sedbergh alongside John Fletcher, who comes in as a technical advisor alongside his role at the SRU, having previously spend a decade as England Rugby Head of Player Development Pathway and six years at Newcastle Falcons, leading the Academy and then as Director of Rugby.

The emotion of Mulholland’s departure and the excitement at the new appointments should certainly add to what is already a spectacular two days of school rugby, celebrating all that is good about the school game.

As previously, NextGenXV will be bringing the action to you live from across both Pitch 1 and Pitch 2 throughout the two days, with all the action available LIVE on the NextGenXV YouTube Channel. Links to the Day 1 action are below, while the Day 2 links are at the foot of this article.

Day 1, Pitch 1

Day 1, Pitch 2

Mulholland’s Sedbergh side host as reigning champions, and not only will they be fuelled by the emotion of wanting to send their leader off in the best possible way, but they are also a top quality side. They are the tournament’s most successful side, with eight titles, including last year’s triumph, and will surely start this tournament as favourites after a 7s season that, with Rosslyn Park still to come, has been simply outstanding. That aura and quality adds plenty, but it, allied to the emotion, brings pressure too and balancing that sentiment and pressure will be one of the key challenges for them.

The other will be the sheer quality of some of the other sides in the draw. Brighton College reached last year’s final and return again, as do all sixteen of last year’s entrants, a real testament to the spirit of this tournament. Brighton will be right up there once again and would love a maiden title here, they are one of the mainstays of the Sedbergh 10s and have provided six players of the tournament, including Harry Streak last year but have yet to convert that individual quality and the team performances, that have taken them to the final three times, into the title.

Kirkham Grammar School won back to back titles in 2022 and 2023, adding to their 2003 crown, and indeed are the only side other than Sedbergh since 2017 to lift the Trophy here – though, granted, two of those years were lost to the pandemic. They were disappointed with last year’s outcome as they ran out of steam after an exhausting final run in of the season, but they will undoubtedly be among the favourites again after another top season.

RGS High Wycombe are also going to be eyeing up a return to the top step, they won this competition in 2016 after finishing as runners up in the previous two seasons. They arrive this year with a similar sense around them that surely their time must be coming somewhere at some point, they have reached back to back St Joseph’s Festival finals, the Seaford 10s final last year, and this year’s Continental Tyres U18 Schools Cup final where they were knocked out by the barest of margins by eventual champions Harrow. They are knocking on the door, loudly.

So too are QEGS Wakefield, who were runners up in that Continental Tyres U18 Schools Cup and have had an outstanding season from start to finish. Their only silverware here was the Plate in 2016 but they must surely be looking at this year and thinking they have a chance. Likewise Stamford, who had a brilliant fifteen-a-side season, won the Plate here in 2017, and yet have not yet been in a Cup final. Again they will feel they have a real chance.

Likewise KES Bath, who have had one of their greatest ever fifteen-a-side seasons this year. Often this tournament has been a tough one, results wise, for them but they will be looking at it this year and thinking that they can do real damage – particularly after their stunning triumph at the Howden Rosslyn Park National Schools 7s as they won the Vase title there on Tuesday after a series of brilliant performances, confidence will be sky high. As will Seaford College’s, who were outstanding last year here and have a team that is more than capable of mounting a serious title challenge, they will be a real force once again.

Those challenges are right throughout this 16-team draw, Ipswich at one stage last year looked like the pick of the tournament but never quite materialised, they have been more under the radar this year and yet have still been excellent, going all the way to the national Plate final. Felsted too, last year’s national Vase champions and a team littered with quality, they will be itching to be in that Cup competition on Day 2.

Hurstpierpoint College would love a shot at the Cup as well, after back to back Plate titles they will be feeling like the time has come for that step up and that they have the side to do so as well. Cokethorpe had some real moments of joy last year too, including victory in their final game and will be throwing everything at this to build on it, meanwhile King’s Macclesfield have been excellent in recent years and will undoubtedly be eager to have a huge say in the outcome of this year’s 10s.

Three huge names in schools rugby have continually impressed at the Sedbergh 10s and yet have never got their hands on the big prize, Barnard Castle, Dulwich College, and Hampton. Barnard Castle have come closest, with a Plate title in 2012 and a place in the Cup final in 2011, and after victory in the recent Dame Allan’s 7s, they ought to arrive with some confidence. So too should Hampton, who have put in some great performances here over the years, have looked really sharp over the 7s season, and have some top class players in their side. Dulwich College meanwhile are right up there as one of the biggest names in the sport, last year they arrived perhaps a little unheralded and yet caught a few sides on the hop, this year they will be feeling they have a huge chance of Cup rugby on Day 2 and from there the tournament is wide open.

Indeed overall the challengers look plentiful, and picking out the eight that will qualify for the Cup on Day 2 looks a real challenge at this early stage. It’s set to be an epic two days of rugby.

Sedbergh 10s Day 1 Draw:

The draw sees the sixteen sides split into two pools of four, from which the top two at the end of Day 1 will qualify for the Day Two Cup pools, again two pools of four, and the bottom two sides from the Day 1 pools will qualify for the Day Two Plate pools, likewise two pools of four. The two Cup Pool winners meet in the Cup final, the two Plate Pool winners in the Plate final.

Group 1 sees hosts and reigning champions up against the back to back Plate champions, Hurstpierpoint College, with 2011 finalists Barnard Castle and the excellent Seaford College for company in a tough pool.

Group 2 features the last side that was not Sedbergh or Kirkham Grammar to win here, 2016 champions RGS High Wycombe. Alongside them are 2017 Plate champions Stamford, then in form KES Bath, and a strong King’s Macclesfield side.

Three-time champions Kirkham Grammar School are in Group 3, where the challenge is laid down by three sides all looking for their first silverware here, Dulwich College, Hampton, and Cokethorpe. Expect a real scrap for those Cup places in this group.

Over in Group 4, except a real scrap as well. Last year’s runners up Brighton College are up against another of last year’s best, Ipswich, a side that knows Ipswich inside out in the form of Felsted, and the national Cup runners up and 2016 Plate winners, QEGS Wakefield.

The Sedbergh 10s is known as a celebration of all that is great about school rugby, and this year it may be able to do that better than ever before given some of the superb off-field stories that accompany it. It is also about competition though, and the competition this year looks as fierce as ever!

Sedbergh 10s Schedule:

Day 1 Pitch 1 (LIVE)

10:30 Sedbergh v Hurstpierpoint

11:05 Hampton v Cokethorpe

11:40 Sedbergh v Barnard Castle

13:30 Seaford v Hurstpierpoint

14:05 Kirkham v Hampton

14:40 Sedbergh v Seaford

15:15 Stamford v King’s Macclesfield

15:50 Ipswich v QEGS Wakefield

Day 1 Pitch 2 (LIVE)

10:30 Stamford v RGS High Wycombe

11:05 Kirkham v Dulwich

11:40 Brighton v Ipswich

13:30 Stamford v KES Bath

14:05 Dulwich v Cokethorpe

14:40 Ipswich v Felsted

15:15 RGS High Wycombe v KES Bath

15:50 Brighton v Felsted

Day 1 Pitch 3

10:30 Barnard Castle v Seaford

11:05 KES Bath v King’s Macclesfield

11:40 QEGS Wakefield v Felsted

13:30 RGS High Wycombe v King’s Macclesfield

14:05 Brighton v QEGS Wakefield

14:40 Hurstpierpoint v Barnard Castle

15:15 Kirkham v Cokethorpe

15:50 Dulwich v Hampton

Day 2 Live Stream Links:

Pitch 1

Pitch 2

Roll of Honour:

Player of the Tournament

Day 2 Live Stream Schedule (Pitch 1) TBA

09.30

10.05

10.40

11.15

12.00

12.35

13.10

13.45

15.00 Cup Final

Day 2 Live Stream Schedule (Pitch 2) TBA

09.30

10.05

10.40

11.15

12.00

12.35

13.10

13.45

14.45 Plate Final

Day 2 Non-Live Schedule (Pitch 3) TBA

09.30

10.05

10.40

11.15

12.00

12.35

13.10

13.45