The Hill House 2023/24 rugby season has been another filled with outstanding achievements for Hill House. Together, the boys and girls teams played over 150 games in total from U8s to the U18s, with many enjoying best ever campaigns.

The 1st XV, captained by Nate Close, won twelve and drew one of their fifteen matches including memorable successes over Woodhouse Grove, Scarborough College and Worksop College in the National Vase. The U15s secured twelve wins from fifteen games and the U14s and U13s were beaten on only two occasions all year.

Our U15 girls enjoyed another unbeaten year and were crowned U16 Yorkshire Cup winners after defeating Prince Henry's Grammar School in the showpiece event.

Sevens season again saw new standards set with the U12s runners up at Woodhouse Grove and the U13s finishing joint top of their group at Rosslyn Park. The U14s reached the second day of the National Schools Sevens for the first time and the U14 and U15 girls both advanced to the knockout stages in their respective competitions, the U15 girls doing so, all playing a year younger in the U16 event and losing out only to the eventual winners in the quarter final. The same group of girls also won the second annual Hill House U16 Girls’ Sevens, again going unbeaten on the way to the title.

Individual accolades have been plentiful for the Hill House players with seven of the 1st XV representing Yorkshire Academy at both U17 and U18 this year, these being Harry Tunningley, Fraser Perry, James Godfrey, Jonah Tuczemskyi, Harry Oldham and Henry Westmoreland-Smith, the latter four of these, all members of the U15 side that lifted the U15 National Schools’ Bowl at the StoneX Arena in 2022.

 

 

 

 

1st XV centre, Dax Millington has continued his pathway by signing an Academy contract with Super League's Leeds Rhinos and his school teammates, Godfrey and Tuczemskyi have recently joined Wakefield Trinity. U16 star, Mario Garrido has continued his Yorkshire journey with the U16s and featured in their recent series of matches.

The Yorkshire Rugby Union Pathway provides a prime opportunity for our players to make their first steps on the representative ladder and five of the current U15 side did so recently, with Jerry Wilkinson, Kieran Davies, Edward Curran, Ryan Havard, and Jamie Edwards all having their first taste of competitive inter-county action in the recent Yorkshire DPP Festival. The girls too have progressed in impressive fashion in their respective programmes with Annie Green, Megan Usher and Isabelle De-Roeck Davies continuing their development with Yorkshire Girls and the UR7s initiative that identifies and nurtures the top rugby sevens playing talent in the country. Theo Curtis and Jonah Tuczemskyi, have done so too at boys U18 level.

On the club scene, our players have represented a multitude of different sides but perhaps most notably has been the number that were a part of the

Doncaster Knights’ U14 team that won the Yorkshire Cup in April with a close fought victory over Huddersfield RUFC. The close and growing relationship between school and club ensures additional competition and learning for our players at all age groups and levels.

It has been a truly great year of progression and adventure for our expanding programme in which the players and teams have raised the bar once again for rugby at Hill House School. We look forward to more in 2024/25!