The Perse School Cambridge

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Aim

We are very proud of our rugby tradition at The Perse School. Our rugby programmes are well organised offering continuity through the teams and year groups. The structure allows our best players access to class coaching and allows those who are developing their skills plenty of opportunity to progress through the teams.

The traditional values of hard work, commitment, unpretentious manners and sportsmanship are all held in high esteem, complemented by the total commitment of the coaching staff to individual needs, personal welfare and every pupil's enjoyment of the game.

Rugby is played as the main sport throughout all year groups; it is played in the Michaelmas Term with the exception of the Year 9 boys who play in the Lent Term. In the Lower School, emphasis is placed on enjoying the game and each session is planned to challenge the players, whilst emphasising core skills at all times. As the boys progress into the Middle School, their basic skills are supplemented with more complex concepts as their understanding of the game grows. The emphasis in the Sixth Form lies in developing greater consistency and improving performance through more structured practices and coaching clinics.

Coaching staff

Every team is taken by a member of staff who will manage the team; each member of staff is supported with a qualified or highly experienced rugby coach. We currently employ three coaches from Cambridge RFC and one from Shelford RFC. This keeps the school rugby club up to date with the latest rugby practices and offers opportunity for position specific training sessions.

Teams

In the Lower School we have seven teams all with the opportunity to play in at least one school fixture. In Year 9 we field four teams, Year 10 three teams, Year 11 two teams and then 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd XV teams in the Sixth Form.

The 2011 Michaelmas and Lent Term is composed of a very strong fixture list as we compete against some very strong teams, including Bedford, Uppingham and Oundle Schools. We have also hosted and played a number of overseas teams in the past, we have attend the prestigious St Josephs XV's Festival and we also enter The Daily Mail Cup Competition and the National Sevens Festival at Rosslyn Park.

The Perse achieved success in 2011 with our U15 team reaching the semi finals of the National School Competition ‘The Daily Mail Cup’. Two of our players were selected in the Daily Mail newspaper’s top 15 players of the competition. The school regularly has players who are involved in the Northampton Saints Academy and the Eastern Counties.

Tours

Overseas tours for the 1^st XV and development XV occur every three years. Previous tours have visited South Africa and South America. In 2006 the 1st XV featured in Rugby World following their victory over Millfield, the eventual winners of the St Josephs Festival.

71 boys, from across five year groups, and seven members of staff recently travelled to South Africa to tour for 16 days. After spending three days at the High Performance Centre at Pretoria University, the tour party travelled down the east coast of South Africa, passing through the Kruger National Park and the Drakensburg Mountains, finishing in Durban. All squads developed superbly well and had a successful tour, winning more games than they lost. Plans are now being made to tour again in 2013, possible to Argentina or to Europe.

Talented individuals

A close link with the Northampton Saints talent development scout enables our stronger rugby players to have a chance of entering the schools of rugby or the Northampton Saints Youth Academy. Closer to home links with Cambridge RFC can offer students an opportunity to be scouted by their newly developed academy. We have a school conditioning coach who will support or establish fitness programmes specific to the individual and their sport.

Local links

The school is proud of its link with Cambridge and Shelford RFC. This link works to improve the standard of rugby in the local area through the promotion of rugby both within the School and the local club community. Cambridge and Shelford Community coaches are regularly employed to help deliver our rugby games programme.