Brendan Gallaghercontinues his series looking at rugby’sgreat schools
WINNING trophiesand reaching finalsisn’t everything inschools’ rugby butit’s nice when it hap-pens and DulwichCollege have hadtheir fair share of memorablemoments to reflect on in recenthistory, not least three consecu-tive titles in the old Daily Mailtrophy between 2012-14 and afourth losing appearance in 2015.
It’s one thing having a year group that can achieve great things at senior level for perhaps two seasons but to reach a nation-al final four years on the trot isexceptional. And they, probably,aren’t even the strongest XV inthe school’s history.
It was nonetheless a phenome-nal streak master minded by a Dulwich College old boy in SamHoward, a very useful EnglandSchools fly-half while at Dulwich,who returned to take charge ofthe team between 2008 and 2015.It wasn’t all wine and roses, therewere some hard yards along theway and Dulwich still shudder atthe memory of a 69-3 home defeatagainst Wellington in September2008, but once the building blocks were in place there was no stopping them.
In 2012 they beat Swinford Hospital School 15-8 to win their firsttitle and that was followed 12months later with a hard fought27-17 victory over NorthamptonSchool for Boys. All of which setthe scene for a command perfor-mance in 2014 with a thumping53-5 win over Warwick, left wingAnthony Nzegwu speeding in fora hat-trick.
It was the school’s 27th straight win over three years in the com-petition and three players -propJosh Ibuanokpe, flanker JohnWinter, and centre Joe Charnley- appeared in all three finals. Formuch of the following season itlooked like Dulwich might makeit four in a row but they lost 30-18to a fired up Bromsgrove in the2015 final.
From that high plateau therewas inevitably something of adip but two seasons ago theywere runners up in the DailyMail Merit Table and there arehigh hopes for next season if andwhen it gets underway
Dulwich have produced a steadystream of internationals over the years including an All Black in Henry Braddon and a host ofearly Test players for Argentinaand Uruguay. In Cyril Wells theyalso produced a player who, in thelast decade of the 19th century,has a decent claim to havinginvented the position of fly-halfwith his innovative link play.
It was, however, the unbeaten1909 team that really put Dulwichon the rugby map. That side fea-tured the “Famous Five” -five starplayers who all went on to play inboth the 1913 Varsity match and Test rugby. There was John ‘Jenny’Green wood who played for Eng-land either side of WWl and wingCyril Lowe, a WWl flying ace andprolific try scorer on the wing.Then there were two Scots -EricLoudoun Shand and GrahamDonald -while William Dohertywent on to captain Ireland.
The Dulwich connection had amassive influence on the 1919 Varsity match as well when theworld tried to return to normal.Greenwood had won four preWar Blues, which was the maximum allowed back then, and arranged to dine in town with his1913 skipper Barry Cumberlegeto see if there was any help theycould offer to Cambridge as theylooked to pick up the pieces. Asthey headed to the bar for a night-cap the Oxford captain LoudonShand walked in and they naturally sparked up a conversation.
Greenwood lamented the com-plete absence of any old hands at Cambridge. Loudon Shand immediately suggested, rathergenerously, that Greenwoodshould return to Cambridge for asecond time. Greenwood, not quiteunderstanding what Loudon Shand was hinting at, takes upthe tale in his entertaining autobiographyA Cap for Boots:
“I replied that it would not bemuch fun getting a side together and then dropping out and notplaying against Oxford. Greatlyto my surprise Shand repliedthat Oxford would not object tome playing a fifth time.”
After the horrors of War, those who fought and survived had little patience with conventionand red tape. To hell with trivial peace time regulations, the Dul-wich ‘mafia’ decided Green wood was playing!
David Flatman recalls Dulwich mean machine
Dulwich have fielded some mighty sides over the decades,not least those chronicled abovebut even the class of 1909 and the2012-14 Cup winners wouldsurely doff their caps to the 1996-97 XV. That was the Dulwich sidewhich amassed 826 points in their15 games and conceded just 47.
It was an extraordinarily talented year group -led by Andrew Sheridan, John Dawson and skip-per Tim Dux -who wentunbeaten throughout their Dul-wich careers from U12s throughto the end of their final season.
They were augmented in thesixth form by David Flatman,who had been attending Maidstone GS but decided he neededto be involved as well. “I was theonly ‘outsider’ in that team, theywere a genuine year group,”recalls Flatman. “I had bumpedinto some of these guys on theSunday morning club circuit andwas totally impressed. I wanted in.
“I contacted Dulwich, foundout what grades I would need toget into the sixth form and thenmy parents half bankruptedthemselves financing me. Themasters had no idea I was arugby player, I didn’t let on.
“The thing that struck meimmediately was the pressure,which basically came from theteam itself. Towards the end ofthe upper sixth when the teamwanted to complete their unbeat-en record there was more pressurethan I felt in my first season as aprofessional with Saracens.
“I loved that environment.That was our world and it was alldown to us. It was an amazingatmosphere, very honest and oneof the hardest working groupsI’ve ever been involved with. Wewere training harder thanmostsemi-professional clubs.
“A lot of it came from our captain Tim Dux and AndrewSheridan. Tim was -is -an amaz-ing guy. He was the All-American,Hollywood, college jock captain.He was that guy. Intelligent andaggressive, demanding but a nat-ural leader. Tim would arrive atpre-season completely rippedafter doing his own training andhe set the tone, you very soon hadto shape up. Sheri was the same,he loved training. As well as hismassive weight sessions he wouldspend all summer running 800mrepetitions. An absolute beast.
“There were some other big characters like Nick Martin whowas without doubt schoolboyrugby’s fattest fly-half but alsohad an amazing skillset. Even asa pro I never saw anybody kick orpass a ball as beautifully as Nick.
“Our resident nutter in the back row, Alex Thompson, was asort of posh Lewis Moody and absolutely integral to our side. Ina bit of a grudge match againstWellington College he broke histhumb in the first half, complete-ly smashed it, but just refused tocome off. He bandaged it up andplayed on for another 50 minutesas if nothing had happened.
“We were also lucky to have agreat coach in Pete Allen, one ofthe best I ever worked under. Heknew how to mix the naturallytalented freaks with theworldclass grafters. You need both.
“I look back on my two yearswith that team with immensepride. Proper friendship andunity with nobody motivated bymoney, careers or ego. It was asgood as sport gets.”
