I was delighted to hear of St Clement Danes’ success in winning the Herts County Rugby Cup and progressing to the fifth round of the national cup.
Rugby has only been played at the school for 7 years and I’m proud to say I attended every match the school played in for the first 3 of those 7 years including the inaugural match on the new pitch and even prouder when Stuart, the youngest of the Duffy family was captain in season 2009/10.
The team has come a long way since then when you consider they faced Berkhamsted 1st XV in the national cup and 5 years ago they were only granted a fixture against the Berkhamsted 3rd XV
Rugby became my sport when growing up near Glasgow as a schoolboy in the 70s you had to be very good to even carry the water bottles for the second team, so I gave rugby a go and discovered that my right foot was quite good at kicking the ball between the posts so that`s how I got a game every week all through school, university and club rugby.
Stuart had seemed quite happy playing football for the school and Chorleywood and it was only when I took him to see England play Scotland at Twickenham that I realised he had an interest in the game and he took it up shortly after.
I’m not sure if it was an interest in the game or the social side that grabbed his attention or getting to meet some of the great names in the game like England legend Lawrence Dallaglio who came with us for a drink before one Calcutta Match at Twickenham and enjoyed our company so much he stayed with us to meet another rugby legend Martin Offiah before we sadly had to part company with him outside the ground.
After the final whistle we went back to see if he was still there but I’m afraid a 6 foot 4 inch cardboard cut out of a Rugby World Cup winner was just too much of a temptation for a light fingered fan.
I hope he ended up in a good home
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