Kingshill School’s year 11 rugby team beat Rednock School on December 14 to become district champions and the most successful team in the school's history. Standard reporter Ryan Merrifield met coach Seb Thomas and captains Tom Woodward and Olly Adkins.

WHEN the players stepped off the pitch at half-time against Rednock they were losing; something they weren’t used to. Not only have they remained unbeaten for five years, during their year 9 season they didn’t even concede a point.

The school, a former sports college, are very aware that these are a special group of players.

“The half-time talk was all about legacies,” said Seb Thomas, P.E. teacher and coach. “We said to them ‘this is your legacy, you can’t lose this now. Don’t let those five years be for nothing.’”

Going into the game, the team unusually had several injuries and Rednock had almost beat them in the district final the previous season.

“Lots of players were playing out of position,” said Olly Adkins, 16, who took over as captain for the year 11 season when Tom Woodward broke his leg. “It just wasn’t working in the first half, we started slowly and they got on top of us.

“We were five-nil down in 20 seconds.”

But it was a different story in the second half when the Kingshill players ran out 27-22 winners to claim the cup and cement themselves in school history.

“In the second half I just stood back and let the big players come forward,” said Mr Thomas. “There were some raised voices, but that’s what you want.” He said as a former sports college the school likes winning, but recognised the talent of this group.

“They’re an inspiration to the school,” He said. “Everyone knows who the players are and it’s given all the pupils a real lift.”

Four of the current year 11 rugby team have gone on to be selected to play for the county team this year.

Olly has also represented and captained Gloucester Academy. “The school encouraged me to go for the trials,” said Olly. “I probably wouldn’t have done them otherwise. When I first started here, I only played football. But I transferred to rugby and haven’t looked back.”

“Most teams consider playing us as their cup final,” said Tom, 16, who has recovered from his broken leg but was forced to miss his last game for the school due to concussion.

“We stay motivated because of Mr Thomas and Mr Hamblin (head of P.E. at Kingshill). They’re great coaches and have really got the best out of us. We want to win for these guys, as much as ourselves.

“A lot of us also play for the same club side, so we’ve carried that team spirit through to the school team but certainly the way the school has nurtured our talents is fantastic.”

“We like to prevent teams from scoring any points,” said Olly. “When you keep winning you just have to find little things like that to keep you going in each game.”

A statement from Mr Hamblin said: “The P.E. Faculty and School are very proud of all the boys who have represented this outstanding team. They will be missed next season, and we wish them all further success in their future rugby careers.”