JOHN FISHER are helping to keep the state school flag flying in the SOCS Daily Mail Schools Trophy with the Purley-based school taking on former champions Cranleigh and regular contenders Whitgift.

Their efforts are not confined to the Trophy, as the innovative school — the launchpad for the likes of Harlequins skipper Alex Dombrandt and Gloucester head coach George Skivington — are staging a new half-term festival for state teams as well.

Surrey neighbours Whitgift proved too strong in the latest round of Trophy matches last weekend but John Fisher pushed Cranleigh close before losing 29-14, and defeated Wimbledon College 24-23.

Director of rugby Tom Street explained it is always difficult for a state school to keep a strong squad together going into the sixth-form years. ‘We are aspirational and want to give boys a good opportunity to develop their rugby,’ he said. ‘We’ve had a tough schedule so far and we were just off the pace against an excellent Whitgift side. '‘But we had an exciting match beating Trinity School (in a mid-week National Cup tie) and claimed the scalp of Eton in a pre-season match, so we have plenty of ability.’

Street said that it had long been his aim to create a festival tournament in October to help give state school players a similar platform to the high-profile event that is held annually at St Joseph’s in Ipswich. ‘While private schools have long dominated the sport, I’ve always felt many talented school players go unnoticed,’ Street added.

John Fisher briefly led against Whitgift thanks to a penalty from fly-half Dom Sayer, who was covering for one of the team’s main men Ollie Hession, who was out injured. Though they eventually went down to a 43-8 defeat, Jaylan Ryan-Coker crossed the line for the underdogs. For Whitgift, victory followed a demanding start featuring matches against Sedbergh and Wellington, the teams who have dominated the Trophy since it was launched in 2013. They were beaten 32-21 by Sedbergh after a tremendous tussle, then Wellington fought back for a
26-26 draw.

‘We will see how things work out,’ said cautious head coach Chris Wilkins. ‘We’ve played some good rugby but we have got hard games coming up.’ Hooker Louis Johnson has already made his mark by scoring nine tries, while fly-half Sam Johnson is proving an accurate kicker by adding 15 conversions. Sedbergh have posted four wins so far — the latest being 52-5 over Ipswich — to take second place in the early Trophy table.

King’s Worcester, who are unbeaten in three, lead the competition — which is run on a merit table basis. Stamford have matched Sedbergh by winning four games thanks to a 39-23 rout of Bedford Modern following triumphs against Stowe, Haileybury and Uppingham. Campion, who are set to compete in the John Fisher Festival, are unbeaten in three, a 46-29 win over Reed’s following those over Skinners’ and Haileybury