Mount are on the climb again under Campbell

Brendan Gallagher continues his series looking at rugby’s great schools

- Brendan Gallagher

THE influence of the big rugby playing Catholic schools in England has been considerable over the years – Ampleforth, Stonyhurst, St Brendan’s Bristol, St Benedict’s Ealing, Saint Anselm’s, Belmont Abbey, Douai, Downside – and to that list must be added the Jesuit College of Mount St Mary’s Spinkhill in Sheffield.

A small educational establishment by most criteria, they have punched well above their weight on their rugby field since the 1980s when Geoff Wappett – later to achieve even greater glories with Bradford GS and England Schools – put the foundations in place while Ged Glyn and Paul Scott carried on the good work and achieved great things during the school’s halcyon days from the late 1980s to the 90s and early noughties.

Thereafter Mount, with their fearsome fixture list, endured the occasional tough season but there have been strong campaigns as well, while in recent years the arrival of South African coach Dylan Campbell has added fresh impetus.

It was under Glynn that the school achieved their most marked success with two appearances in the Daily Mail Cup Final including a victory over RGS Newcastle in 1994 and two appearances in the Rosslyn Park Sevens Open final. Mount won the Open title in 1988 beating Millfield 12-6 in the final and went close again two years later when they pushed a Neath College side packed with Welsh school internationals very close before losing 12-8.