Published: 7 February, 2013
by STEVE BARNETT

WITH the Six Nations under way, the head of sport at St Aloysius’ College is trying to get rugby union put firmly on the map in north London.
With the help of the Rugby Football Union and Hampstead RFC, Alistair Halsall is steering young players showing a real interest in the sport towards local clubs.

The sweeping move is proving a huge success with a large number of pupils training and playing for the school in Highgate and Hampstead RFC. Two of the youngsters who have already benefited are 16-year-olds Paul Aguele and Cecil MacCarthy.

Paul is playing at fly-half for Finchley RFC’s ‘A’ team in his age group while Cecil turns out for Saracens RFC and he has secured a place in London Wasps’ élite player development group. As a promising prop forward, Cecil has been picked at county level too and he recently scored a try for Middlesex Under-16s.

“Rugby is channelling my energies in the right place,” says Cecil, who has shown considerable talent for basketball and field athletics in the shot put, hammer and discus.

“I went on a rugby tour with the school to Italy in 2009 and it was the first time I’d come across a sport where you were expected to have a meal with the opposition after the match.

“We learned what it is like to respect the referee and shake hands with opponents at the end of the game.”

Meanwhile Paul, who is the head boy at St Aloysius and is goalkeeper in the football team, played a non-contact, tag version of rugby at primary school and subsequently joined Kilburn Cosmos RFC.

“The environment in rugby is like one big family,” he said. “Friends say to me rugby is for posh kids. There is no doubt it has been seen as a white boy’s sport. I think that is changing and it’s getting better and you only have to look at me and the other boys at St Aloysius who are playing rugby now to see the changes. We have all got to challenge the stereotypes.”

Rugby is a game for all shapes and sizes so while it is a perfect fit for the sturdily-built Cecil, in a way other sports may not be, Paul has found his place too among the backs.

And the game fits the boys’ mental needs as well as their physical ones. “Cecil has brute strength but he is a very nice, well-mannered, guy,” says Alistair, a Scot who is first team coach at Hampstead RFC and introduced rugby to St Aloysius five years ago.

“He is now in line to receive a scholarship for his sixth-form studies to Mount St Mary’s College in Derbyshire. His parents have always seen rugby as a good thing but now it has also opened up a different path in his education.”

At this stage in their rugby development, St Aloysius do not have a packed fixture list in the way traditional rugby schools do, and will still have to try and find a way of coping with the challenging cost and logistics of travelling around London.

But those challenges haven’t stopped them being successful as they’ve won the Islington Rugby Championships for the past five years and in 2009 also won the Emerging Schools Championships. In school time the concentration is on improving tackling, contact skills and learning about scrums and line-outs, with those showing most aptitude guided to Hampstead RFC and other clubs.

“The rugby culture was very alien to the boys when rugby started here,” Alistair says. “They were more used to just sulking off at the end of the game than shaking hands. Now they are champing at the bit to play rugby and keep fit and they are keen to get into the social side of the game as well. It is very much accepted as part of the school and boys like Cecil have such a huge presence inside and outside school.

“The other pupils look up to him and Paul. They have friends from all sorts of backgrounds. Cecil has learnt that he’s noticeable and he and Paul are on a similar path, they conduct themselves with class and all they talk about is rugby.”