This Sunday Northampton School for Boys host Sedbergh School in one of the biggest fixtures of the season to date, kicking off this second half of the season in style.
It is a clash between two of the very best in the country, indeed NSB currently sit top of the Daily Mail Trophy standings, while Sedbergh sit in third, and the winner of Sunday’s clash will likely be viewed by many as the top side in the country.
Without doubt it is one of the great fixtures of the season, and it will all be LIVE here on the NextGenLive YouTube Channel, and through the embedded video link below, kicking off at 2.15pm on Sunday, with coverage beginning at 2pm.
*image by NickB Images
The story behind this fixture is incredible. Visitors Sedbergh are one of the biggest names in global schools rugby. A school that is synonymous with the game, having had the likes of Will Carling, Will Greenwood, John Spencer, Wavell Wakefield, Cameron Redpath, and Bevan Rodd pass through their ranks – they are a rugby institution.
They provide the outcomes to back that up, too. This group are no strangers to that, the current Upper 6thgroup went unbeaten as U16s. This season they have been outstanding, including dominant performances against Whitgift, Denstone College, St Peter’s York, Ipswich, and Clifton College. They are unafraid to challenge themselves too, which has seen them stung in incredible and close games by Kirkham Grammar School in a busy run, and the Irish giants Blackrock College.
That the likes of Blackrock College can be tempted across the Irish Sea shows the aura and the quality of Sedbergh. They are one of school rugby’s greats, and they are playing like it as well.
Their hosts are unafraid of a challenge too. Northampton School for Boys are one of modern schools rugby histories greatest stories. A state school, little known outside of Northamptonshire for much of their history, the last decade has seen them explode into the national consciousness, and the last four years onto the international consciousness. It has been an extraordinary tale.
From a good side regionally through the 1990s, winning County Cups, they have built and built. Reaching U15 Schools Cup semi finals in 2004 and 2009 with players like Courtney Lawes coming through. In 2013 that translated to U18 level, an U18 Schools Cup final defeat to the great Dulwich College side of the era. That taste opened the gates, U18 Vase success in 2016, then a Cup semi final in 2018, an U15 final in 2019, and another U18 final in 2020.
Their explosion to the very top end of the scale though has come through the age-grades in the last 3 years, winning the U15 Schools Cup in 2023 and 2025, reaching the final in 2024 and reaching the U16 Cup final in 2025 as well.
All of that Junior success and promise is translating to the U18s now, an unbeaten season so far, with eight wins and a draw. It is the draw that is most significant ahead of this game though, 36-36 away at Millfield, perhaps the only side that can challenge Sedbergh in the UK as a global rugby presence. It was a flag in the ground moment for NSB, signalling that they had arrived. Not just a Cup team but a team that competes with the very best in the world.
That is who visits on Sunday, one of the best in the world. Last year Sedbergh travelled down at the same point in the season and won 40-12. This year expect something far tighter. Both have every reason to believe they can and will come out on top, whoever does will rightly be argued by many as the top side in the country at the moment.
For NSB to even be in that conversation is an astonishing achievement, but they will not want to stop at simply being in the conversation. For Sedbergh, being in that conversation is nothing new, that brings with it a pressure of its own – a pressure they so often live up to and that this group has as well.
An extraordinary afternoon awaits for those playing, for those in attendance, and those watching on the NextGenLive YouTube Channel. Schools rugby history, playing out on the field.
Northampton School for Boys v Sedbergh: Sunday 2nd November, 2.15pm KO | LIVE
