By Jonty Ralphsmith
The Haileybury parents group cooked 800 sausages, 500 kranskies, 300 burtgers ans sold 200 bacon and egg rolls at the Victorian Schools rugby union grand final on Saturday 20 August.
“That gives you an idea of the size of the day and how big the event was,” Haileybury’s director of rugby Aidan Ryan said.
More than 300 of Victoria’s talented Young rugby players from 14 mostly APS and AGSV schools descended on the Haileybury grounds for seven matches played across the day.
The feature match was the division one under 18 grand final between a young Brighton Grammar team and powerhouse St. Kevin’s, with the latter getting the win, making it 10 consecutive titles.
There was much hype ahead of the day, with Ryan estimating each grand finalist brought 200 parochial supporters, contributing to a hyped-up atmosphere, and crowd of about 1500 throughout the day.
Hutchins School in Tasmania also involved as all schools celebrated the return of grand final day after two Covid-19 cancelled years.
For Haileybury itself, the day capped a terrific season.
After spending some time in division two, Haileybury was back in the top grade, netting a 5-5 win-loss record to finish sixth out of the ten teams, beating rivals including Xavier College and Melbourne Grammar.
On Saturday, Haileybury played the fifth-place playoff against Scotch College, going down 30-28, with Scotch winning via a penalty conversion on the last kick of the game.
Haileybury’s under 15s were also in action, playing a curtain raiser to the grand final and winning 31-7 against Marcellin College.
In Ryan’s first year at the school in 2018, some tough results Hurt the rugby program but it rebounded in 2019, reaching the division two grand final and 2022 has been another step forward.
“It’s a set of results that haven’t been since the late 80s or early 70s so it’s a great time for rugby at the school,” Ryan said.
I’ve never been more excited about a sports program in a long time, the effort from the school should be praised.”
“The maintenance crew and people around the grounds keep asking what the team is looking like – rugby has really become part of the school conversation, like your mainstream sports, and I think it is only going to get bigger.”
