Champions! 

Ewell Castle 1st XV rugby team cemented their place in history as one of the most successful Ewell Castle teams ever as they won the Jonny Wilkinson Cup, building on their success in the Calm Cup last year. The team masterminded by Mr Hunt and Mr Turk were on tour at Rendcombe School, and the celebrations lasted throughout the minibus journey back to School.

The team started as they meant to go on, with a high intensity performance 10-0 win over St. David's School. The scoring was opened courtesy of a brilliant intercept by Luca, who broke through before offloading to Callum to score the try. Ewell dominated throughout the game, and in the second half Sidney made an instant impact with his first touch of the ball going over to complete the scoring.

The next opponents for Ewell were Kingham School, who had also won their first game in the group stage. Ewell scored early in the first half - the ball popped up out of a scrappy scrum and was flicked towards Sam, who run down the blindside and fended off the attempts to tackle him before running under the posts. He converted his own try to leave Ewell 7-0 ahead. Ewell went on to win the game 7-0, after a brilliant defensive effort held out waves of Kingham attacks.

Ewell went into their final game in the group stage top of their group, and a win or a draw would have made that certain, however a poor performance against an injury-stricken St. Edwards resulted in Ewell losing 10-14 despite a brilliant brace from Sam.

What followed was an anxious wait to find out where Ewell would finish in their group as they watched the final group stage game between Kingham and St. Edwards which ended 12-0. Ewell then waited to find out the final standings of the group - and were delighted to hear they had topped their group - putting them through to the final.

Their opponents in the final were Milton Abbey, who had won all their group games, and the game did not disappoint. The game was played with high intensity and Ewell were dominant early in the first half, however, momentum shifted, and Milton Abbey grew into the game. In the second half Milton Abbey started the stronger side, and at one point it looked as though a Milton Abbey player had made an intercept and was through for the first score of the game, however the ball slipped out his hands, giving Ewell Castle a second chance. Ewell would suffer further in the second half, as they suffered a yellow card for a tackle from an offside position, leaving Ewell searching for a route back into the game. Ewell did not disappoint, driving up the pitch through a succession of penalties before Ewell were given a penalty on the 22-metre line. After a debate of what action should be taken, Mr Turk made a decisive intervention instructing Sam to take the kick for the posts (which had to be a drop goal in the competition format). Sam stepped up, and with nerves of steel kicked Ewell Castle to glory. (12th and 13th November 2022)