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Sport HistoryRugby Union Read moreRugby Union Close· January 1988 at the end of the Teachers Industrial Action Malcolm Collins and Geoff Rees arrive at ICC. At this point no rugby was played between schools in the locality.· We tried to play some other schools at U18 age grade and were smashed by 40-80 points by local schools. · In September 1989 I went back to basics and worked with the new U12 intake running 3 teams at A,B and C grades. · This was repeated in 1990 whilst maintaining the year above as an U13 squad. Both went unbeaten. Indeed we did not lose an U12 game for seven years. · In 1991 we ran U14 A and B squads, U13 A,B and C and U12 A, B and C. The College entered the Junior Tournament at Rosslyn Park. · 1992 we added an U15 A and B team to the set-up · In 1993 the U15 team reached the last 16 of the Daily Mail Cup losing 0-6 to the eventual winners. · We started to run an U18 squad in 1993 and lost in the final of the Devon U18 Cup, the first state comprehensive to reach the final. We entered the Festival Tournament at Rosslyn Park. · 1994 saw the college become the first state comprehensive to win the Devon U18 KO Cup breaking the cartel of the Public and Grammar Schools. · In 1995 the Devon Cup was again won and the squad reached the last 16 of the U18 Daily Mail Cup. One young man joined the College from another state comprehensive locally. We lost to the winners Colstons in Bristol. · We had some fixtures against some of the public schools in Devon. These schools were happy to play us as long as we were losing as we got stronger these fixtures dried up. We have never had a ‘traditional fixture list’. · In the mid 1990s the state schools in Devon and Cornwall were having there best players recruited by the public schools to help them win their traditional fixtures and help with recruitment of students to their schools. · We approached Saracens in 1995 and were given the opportunity to work in Partnership with the club. Nigel Wray the owner has been fantastic in helping our college develop. · Two local students joined the College in 1996 to enhance there playing ability. Both Stuart Richardson and Ian Brimmacombe left the College before completing their courses. · As the college continued to improve with its fixture list, conditioning programmes, technical, tactical and mental training programmes the standard of the team improved year on year. · In 1995 Nigel Cane, scrum half joined Gloucester and played in the Premiership, Nigel now plays for Plymouth Albion. Tom Chubb, Steven Hodge, James Owen and Lee Passingham have all also played for Plymouth in the National Leagues · Students locally started to join the College because they saw that they could improve and play to a good standard. This has snowballed as local students in East Cornwall, Plymouth and Devon now chose to attend the College. · 1996 saw Matthew Cornish, flanker, play for Leicester, Matthew now plays for the RAF, Combined Services and Newbury. · 1997 is the year the first weights room is opened at the College. Dave Bell leads the weightlifting and gains his Level 3 BAWLA Award. In 2000 Dave joins Harlequins as a strength and conditioning coach. · In 1998 James Parkes signed as a hooker with Saracens and is now playing for Gloucester · 1999 saw Stuart Hooper, lock forward, sign with Saracens he is now playing for Leeds. · 2000 saw Chris Bell, centre, signed for Harlequins playing 50 games, before moving to Leeds Rhinos in 2004. Mark Scrivener, fly half,-also signed for Harlequins, spending two seasons with them before playing for Penzance, then joining Redruth RFC in 2004. Adryan Winnan, full back, signed for Saracens at the same time, spending three seasons with the Premiership team before joining Tarbes in France for the 2004-05 season . · In 2001 Matt Lane joined Bath FC and is playing for their Second Team at the present time. James Lewis, flanker, joined Saracens and played for their U21 team James is now playing for Barnstable. Stewart Taylor, centre, joined Gloucester and has played this year(2003-2004) for their U21 squad. Scott Taylor was invited to join the Bristol Academy but declined the invitation to follow academic studies. · In 2001 the College team was invited to the St.Josephs Tournament in Ipswich. We have been able to improve the standard of rugby played through this tournament as it has exposed us to the top teams in the tournament. · 2002 saw the college designated as host to a quarter of the RFU SW Academy. Roger Hutchinson moves from being HOD PE at the College to becoming the first Academy Manager for SWERA. James Denham joined Exeter RFC and has played regularly for their second team. · 2003 saw the college defeated in the final of the St. Josephs Tournament. With mark Hewitt as coach, Mark is now the Academy Manager at Gloucester · 2004 has seen the College U18 7s squad win the Devon, Fylld, Surrey and Rosslyn Park cups. · To date Lee Passingham, Matt Cornish, Nigel Cane, Chris Bell, Stewart Hooper, James Parkes, Adryan Winnan and Tom Chubb have all played for England at junior levels; Stewart Taylor and Aarron Cruickshanks have represented Scotland and Gavin Boak has represented Wales. · 2004 saw Steffon Armitage and Ben Wickens sign professional forms with Saracens, the fourth and fifth players to sign for Saracens. Aaron Jarvis signed for Bath FC. James Denham and Oliver Yates play prop for Devon U21 in the U21 County Championship final at Twickenham. Oliver Yates also plays for Exeter University in the BUSA final also at Twickenham. · 2005 has seen Tom Arscott and Aarran Cruickshanks sign professional forms with Plymouth Albion and Baz Hocking joined Launceston. Former student Paul Edwards moved from Redruth to Bridgewater RFC. During the season the squad beat Millfield away 24-21, our greatest win to date at 15 a side rugby. The 7s squad again made the final of the Rosslyn Park U18 Open 7s Tournament, losing in the final. 2006/07 saw some very good performance for the Ivybridge team wins at the annual Saracens Tournament and then at the Fylde 7s were highlights. 5 players made International sides for England & Scotland. Scott Meakin representing Scotland Under 18s in the 5 Nations championship. Dave Lewis, Ben Moon and Dan Williams representing England Under 18s and Tom Bedford representing England Under 19s at the Rugby World Cup in Belfast. Moon And Williams traveled to Australia with the 18s with Williams captaining his country while Lewis was selected but was required to stay at home by his club to cover for the premiership outfit. Harry Spencer finished the season with Plymouth Albion and the West Country Warriors before moving on to work with Saracens where he accepted a contract for the 2007/08 season. Harry made his Albion debut and played his first game with Saracens B side against Bath B. This game finished in a win to Saracens and “Big H” locking with Hugh Vivian. All this the day after he represented Devon at Under 20 level, so a busy few days for him! Dave Lewis & Dan Williams signed for Gloucester. Jamie Tripcony signed at Plymouth Albion while Ben Moon & Tom Bedford signed full time with Exeter Chiefs. 2007/08 Internationals continued to be developed at Ivybridge with Addison Lockley making the Under 16 squad and more players signing pro forms. Mark lee signed for Plymouth Albion, Richard Bright for the Cornish Pirates and Richard Jenkins for Bristol. Ivybridge once again winning the Saracens tournament and winning the Millfield and County sevens competitions and losing for the first time in 5 years in the Fylde final. A win over Blackrock form Dublin under lights at Ivybridge was a highlight in the 15s season. 2008/09 Ivybridge won the Truro U18 Tournament sweeping Filton aside 17-5 in the final. The victory underlined Ivybridge's reputation as a breeding ground for stars of the future with Devonians emerging unbeaten from a tournament. |