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'There were year nines spin passing 25 metres and I couldn't even do that off my left hand at the time let alone my right'
By Josh Raisey
Former pupil Cameron Redpath has explained why he believes famed English rugby nursery - Sedbergh School - is “the best rugby school in England”.
Speaking to Jim Hamilton on the RugbyPass All Access Podcast, the latest addition to Scotland’s Six Nations squad explained what made his school so good.
The Cumbrian school has produced some legends of the game, including England’s Will Carling and Will Greenwood, as well as current Welsh internationals Tomas Francis and James Botham. In the coming weeks, Redpath could be the latest alumnus to play Test rugby.
Though Hamilton said there is a lot of attention given to Hartpury College and the production line of talent in the West Country, he asked the 21-year-old why some call Sedbergh “the best rugby school in England”.
“The thing for me was the core skills of the whole school,” Redpath said. “I remember going there for my first ever training day and there were year nines spin passing 25 metres and I couldn't even do that off my left hand at the time let alone my right, they were doing it off both.
“There’s no football, there’s no anything other than rugby for boys. So I think because it's such a small village, the town all revolves around the school. It’s just the culture around rugby, they’re so rugby-driven. For me, I just love the feel of every Saturday you go and play on the main first team pitch and the whole village would be watching, so you’d get a couple of hundred people watching your games. The whole school would come, so just the whole environment and the feel of it, it’s pretty fun and you enjoy it. And because you’re playing with people who are also in the same mindset as you, you end up really, really enjoying it.
“I’ve said it from day one, when I don’t enjoy my rugby I don’t play well and I think that was the thing about Sale when I left there I wasn’t really enjoying it because I'd been injured and I wasn’t playing well myself and that’s why I needed a fresh start at Bath.
“So [Sedbergh] was where I properly started to enjoy my rugby.
“As you take it more seriously, you still have to enjoy it, and that’s the main thing the coaches are really good at, they understand the level of enjoyment and understand you have to take it seriously but you’re still a kid at the end of the day.
“So that’s the massive thing, the enjoyment and the core skills of some of the boys there are a joke.”
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Agreed. As a Saffa I have much respect for the ABs. I also have to say given any option I would ONLY prefer to lose to ABs. To lose to England is probably the most embarrassing think to happen to either of us.
There was a time when both of us lost to England and we both hated it. Thankfully those days are behind us. Kudos to you guys, kudos to ABs. But dear old BS seems to hate us Boks. No idea why.
Go to commentsI got the sense that holding him to it was kickback from SB and the rfu smarting at being jilted quite so soon, so unexpectedly and so publicly.
Seem to remember that they spoke to Gustard before appointing Joe and you really have to think he would have come in at a higher level?
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