As the new school year is now well underway, I am thrilled to provide you with an exciting update on the first six weeks of rugby here at Stockport Grammar School.

This year has kicked off with a real success in the volume of pupils attending co-curricular training. It has been really pleasing to see so many pupils enjoying school rugby and wanting to improve. We have had 240 pupils attend co-curricular practises: including 70 Year 7 boys and 51 Seniors players. From the 240 that have attended practices, 84% of these pupils have represented the school in a competitive fixture. This is something we value here at SGS and we hope to continue to provide competitive fixtures for as many pupils as possible.

Across the age groups, we have had some really promising performances and results - it would be impossible to pinpoint one individual result from our 43 fixtures so far this year.

The seniors have made a promising start. The 1st XV have progressed into the 2nd Round of the Cheshire Cup, beating Sandbach School away 27-7. They will play either Altrincham Grammar School or Bishop Heber High School in the next round. The 1st XV lost narrowly away to Barnard Castle School in the National Cup, meaning they drop down into the National Plate, where they will play Liverpool College in the next round.

This year we wanted to extend and increase the level of the provision for our rugby squad members. As part of this increase, we have hired a part time Strength and Conditioning coach from Sale Sharks. This has been a fantastic addition to the pupils rugby programme allowing them to enhance their physical performance on the pitch. This has been really beneficial, for both, the pupils knowledge and understanding around injury prevention.

One area that has seen huge success and development this year has been the Girl’s Rugby programme. Off the back of last year’s success, we wanted to continue to grow Girls Rugby at Stockport Grammar School. Year 7 girls now have compulsory rugby lessons as part of their PE programme. As well as this, Mr Corbett and Mr Yates has been delivering an extremely successful Year 7 & 8 Girls Rugby co-curricular club, which has seen over 25 girls regularly attending. The numbers continue to grow week on week with this session and it would be great to see any more new faces.

Finally, I would like to thank all parents and guardians for your support so far with the rugby. As staff, we massively appreciate all your efforts with dropping off, collecting, washing and drying kit, etc. I am sure your sons and/or daughters are as equally appreciative (although they may not always remember to tell you).

Mr Matt Sturgess
Head of Rugby