NSB are also an official partner school with Northampton Saints.<\/p>\n
This year, they provided the most players from any school to Saints’ under-18s.<\/p>\n
Four players will also be offered first-team academy contracts this year. <\/p>\n
“The boys have to manage their time really well,” says assistant first team coach Adam Baker. <\/p>\n
“When we get into sixth form and into that first-team setting, we will try and put them through a programme that matches up with an academy programme, so if they go into that pathway, they are fully aware and prepped as to what that day-to-day life looks like.”<\/p>\n
However, NSB aren’t the only state school making an impact.<\/p>\n
They beat Campion School from Essex in the Continental Tyres School Cup semi-finals.<\/p>\n
It was a compelling contest which went down to the wire, with two state schools playing high-octane rugby in front of a passionate crowd of over a thousand people. <\/p>\n
The Rugby Football Union has a network of rugby managers to try to embed the game in state schools.<\/p>\n
Twenty-two of the best state schools compete in the ACE (Academy, Colleges and Education) League. England internationals George Martin, Joe Heyes and Harry Randall all came through that route.<\/p>\n
The programme is designed to support players who may not attend traditional rugby-playing schools, providing daily coaching, competitive fixtures, and opportunities to train alongside academy players.<\/p>\n
Northampton Saints have two state school partnerships which play in the ACE League: Moulton College in Northampton and Sigma Sixth Colchester, located at Philip Morant School and College.<\/p>\n
“Growing state school rugby is a one step at a time process,” said Beaumont.<\/p>\n
“This is over 10 years of hard work. But it can be done. <\/p>\n
“My advice to other schools is find a way to get more numbers in training, organise a game. <\/p>\n
“Put a tournament on, you don’t need posts. Make it a habit. Get kids playing.<\/p>\n
“Rugby needs every state school to push and develop rugby. This is the perfect time. State school rugby could be really special.” <\/p>\n
One of NSB’s biggest stars is their 18-year-old captain Jack Lewis, who plays in the back row.<\/p>\n
He has been at NSB for the past two years and in the Saints academy since he was 14.<\/p>\n
This year he made his debut for Northampton Saints. Now he’s preparing to lead his school for the final time in a Twickenham final.<\/p>\n
“NSB taught me how to act, it’s the closest thing to a professional environment,” he said.<\/p>\n
“A lot of people work hard behind the scenes, they sacrifice their time. It’s given me so much as a player and a student.<\/p>\n
“I’ve never played at Twickenham, it would be a great achievement if we could lift the cup there. We want to show what NSB stands for.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NSB are also an official partner school with Northampton Saints. This year, they provided the most players from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-545838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}