The Lost Generation

THE LAST rugby match St John’s School in Leatherhead played was when their U15s beat St Lawrence College in the semi-final of the England Rugby National Vase competition on 3 March 2020. It was a tough, gritty victory, St John’s scraping through 10-3, and one can picture the joy of the boys as they looked forward to the final at Twickenham. Little did they, or St John’s director of rugby Craig Newby, imagine what lay in store.

For Newby, the former Leicester and New Zealand loose forward, the cessation of school sport has been hard to bear. He had arrived at St John’s (the alma mater of George Kruis) in 2017 and swiftly started to achieve results among the school’s 23 teams. As well as the U15s’ success, the school’s U18 side won the Rosslyn Park Sevens Vase title in 2017.

But for Newby it had always been as much about participation as winning. He says: “When I came in I wanted to make rugby more inclusive at every level and make sure that the coaching and playing vibe we had was positive, about having fun and enjoying it with your mates. We’ve got some good growth out of that, more teams and more boys playing. We had three or