A new name is gunning for a top-ten finish as the 2026 SOCS Daily Mail Schools Trophy prepares to restart after the half-term break.
Doncaster-based Hill House School have won five from five so far to put them among the leaders in this national competition which has attracted over 150 teams.
The Yorkshire school launched an enhanced rugby programme in 2019 and have doubled the number of fixtures from Under-9s upwards.
Three years ago Hill House U15s won the national bowl knock-out and they have continued to build. At the last count, some 20 players were involved in academy rugby.
Led by captain Will Nicholls, a 38-32 win over Hymers College in Hull started the season. Further wins have followed over Ashville, Pocklington, Worksop and Harrogate.
Director of rugby Chris Rose said: ‘The potential of this group is truly exciting as we look forward to the second half of the term.
‘The school has always played rugby but we have grown the programme significantly in the last few years.’
Full back Noah Dimitri on the charge as Hill House march on with five wins from five
Hill House line-out man Kazimierz Ciuraj-Davison claims the ball
George Wells powers forward as Hill House look forward to the second half of the season
Hill House will test themselves when the campaign restarts including fixtures against Ripon GS, Scarborough College, Prince Henry’s GS and Ampleforth.
RGS Guildford are another team putting together their best campaign yet in the Trophy.
‘We are the sum of our parts,’ is the mantra of head coach Ben Dudley who has seen his team become the first to post six wins this season.
RGS have a full fixture list over the second-half of the term and have the chance of a top ten finish for the first time. Their best in the 14-year history of the Trophy is 19th in 2022-23.
Their record also shows the competitive nature of schools rugby as last year they reached the half-term break having lost five from six but all by a single score.
Those close defeats showed RGS how they needed to manage games better and finished up by reaching the semi-finals of the national plate competition.
This campaign, the Surrey school have not let up since a summer trip to South Africa. An opening win over St Judd, 33-10, showed what was possible and they have remained undefeated including wins over regular top-ten contenders in St Paul’s, 24-10, and most recently Epsom College.
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Dudley said his team played their best overall performance against St Paul’s where they had to defend for long periods. ‘It was nip and tuck all the way,’ he said.
The win over Epsom, who finished eighth last season, saw RGS overturn a half-time deficit of 14-0 to win 21-17.
He’s loath to single out players. ‘We’ve lots of lads doing their job,’ he added about a squad led by captain and lock Ben Goldsmith. ‘We have a talented, committed squad with lots of players stepping up.’
The try-scoring has been shared around with 17 different players contributing so far. Vice-captain Jola Akin-Olugbade leads the way on five, while twin brother Kiki Akin-Olugbade, Henry Tabberner and Jamie Nkrumah are on three.
The Trophy, which is run on a merit-table basis, resumes after half-term next week. The table is led by Haberdashers’ Monmouth narrowly from former champions Clifton College.
Monmouth travel to Solihull on Saturday November 7, while Clifton host Wellington College in a clash of former champions.
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