St John’s vision is to be the most innovative and supportive rugby school in the country, offering pathways in both performance and participation for all pupils. We achieve this through instilling strong character-based values throughout the program, in line with St John’s outstanding pastoral and supportive reputation. St John’s is committed to rugby for all levels of player, and we take the welfare of our pupils very seriously.
Recent exciting developments in rugby have included seeing the Harlequins’ Premiership side and U18 academy squad training on site. In the summer of 2022, we saw a return to regular touring with the senior squad enjoying their summer pre-season camp in France. Annual domestic and short haul tours are planned for junior year groups, with senior squads touring long haul to South Africa on a regular basis.
Rugby is a major sport at St John’s and is led by Director of Rugby Liam St John alongside Rugby Professional Topsy Ojo. The Rugby Department is comprised of a number of experienced and passionate professionals.
Rugby is our main sport for boys in the Autumn Term, with 23 teams from U12-U18 competing, as well as sevens in the Spring Term for all age groups. We have a strong fixtures list including Brighton College, Epsom College, Hampton School, RGS Guildford, and Trinity School. Our most significant recent success has come at U18 level. In the 2017 sevens season, our team won the Rosslyn Park Vase title and in 2018 finished in the Top 10 of the Cup. At fifteens-level, we recently hosted Dulwich College in the National Champions’ Trophy semi-final. St John’s has a proud tradition of producing fantastic rugby players, including George Kruis (British and Irish Lions, England and Saracens), Richard Haughton (England Sevens), Cameron Cowell (England Sevens), Jack Musk (Harlequins, GB U18 Sevens and England U16), Molly Saunders (England U18) and Claudia McDonald (England). We are proud to have a large number of pupils throughout the school involved in representative pathways, for Harlequins, County and Exiles programmes. Girls’ rugby is in its early developmental stage but has seen a sharp uptake in interest, with the school being one of only a handful to field sides at the prestigious Rosslyn Park Schools 7s tournament.
St John’s is committed to rugby for all levels of player, and we take the welfare of our pupils very seriously. All of our playing fields are located close to school and the excellent medical centre led by our head nurse, Susan Newing, whilst the School were one of the first to partner with leading practitioners ‘Return2Play’ in a partnership that continues to this day. All staff involved in the delivery of rugby regularly undertake concussion training and the School is a proud ‘RugbySafe’ school.
