After a year’s absence due to covid, the St Joseph’s Festival returns this weekend amidst much anticipation.
First established in 1986, the Festival is one of the key dates on the schools rugby calendar. Arguably the most arduous and challenging tournament to emerge victorious from, the Festival has featured some of the finest schoolboy players and teams of all time through the years.
NextGenXV will be live streaming the whole Festival, including on Saturday night a live show after the close of play, reviewing the day’s action and looking ahead to the knockout games on Sunday at St Joseph’s College in Ipswich, Suffolk.
New Format
This year there are some changes to the structure of the Festival, Saturday will run as normal with the sixteen teams split into four groups of four, however on Sunday things are different. Gone are the Cup/Plate groups, and in comes a knockout format for the second day.
The Top two teams from each of the Saturday groups will qualify for the quarter finals of the De La Salle Trophy on Sunday, the bottom two from each group will qualify for the Bowl quarter finals.
From there, winners in each competition progress to semi finals in each competition, losers move to the semi finals of the Plate (for De La Salle Trophy quarter final losers), and Shield (for Bowl quarter final losers. Each of the competitions will have a final and a third place play off, meaning that every side in the Festival will play six games over the course of the weekend, three on each day, and at the end of the Festival every side will be able to be ranked from 1 to 16.
Games are now 25 minutes long, and both days will kick off at 9am, with the final game of the day on each day kicking off at 4.20pm.
The Groups
The groups, as ever, look exciting. The field is of an unbelievable quality this year and any one of a number of sides could come out on top by the close of play on Sunday. Below is a quick summary of the groups, but you can also head to our group by group guide where we look at every team, make our predictions for who will progress, and give you the chance to vote on who you think will win the 2021 St Joseph’s Festival: Group by Group Guide 2021.
Group 1: Wellington College, Denstone College, QEGS Wakefield, RGS High Wycombe.
Group 2: Kirkham Grammar, Dulwich College, Whitchurch High, Eltham College.
Group 3: RGS Newcastle, Hampton, Hurstpierpoint College, Cheltenham College.
Group 4: Millfield, Brighton College, St Joseph’s College, King’s Worcester.

The History
The St Joseph’s Festival is the longest running U18 fifteen-a-side competition in the England, its history is synonymous with recent schools rugby history. Millfield and Colston’s have been the dominant sides historically, each winning six titles, Millfield splitting their through the decades, Colston’s dominating that late 90s early 00s period.
Included in this year’s competition are 9 winners of the De La Salle Trophy, Wellington College, RGS Newcastle, Brighton College, Hampton, Millfield, Dulwich College, RGS High Wycombe, QEGS Wakefield, and the hosts, St Joseph’s College. Every champion since 2010 is in attendance, aside from 2016 winners Cranleigh.
The tournament is also famous as a breakout tournament for future stars of the game, with the player of the tournament award going to the likes of Marcus Smith, Zach Mercer, Jonathan Joseph, and Lewis Ludlam in the past, and most recently to RGS Newcastle’s Phil Brantingham in 2019 and Millfield’s Dan John in 2018, two promising young players currently making great strides and Newcastle Falcons and Exeter Chiefs respectively.
This year will be no different, it will be a collection of some of the finest school rugby talent in the country, and a chance for everyone watching at the ground and on their screens to get a glimpse of some of the stars of the future.
If you are interested in having your school games live streamed, please get in touch via richard@nextgenxv.com
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