On the weekend of 22 – 24 October, the Cheltenham College 1st XV will be taking part in a very special tournament, Veterrrimi IV. Held at Durham School, the tournament will see the four oldest rugby football clubs in the world (Cheltenham College, Durham School, Sherborne and Rugby School) compete against each other in a celebration of rugby.

The President of the RFU, Richard Appleby will present the winning trophy, with John Spencer, Head of Club England and Roger Uttley, former England and Lions Captain lined up to speak to the players at the special dinner following the matches.

We wish the College boys the very best of luck!

An overview of the history of rugby at Cheltenham College

Cheltenham College rugby teams have a reputation for free flowing and skilful rugby that harks back to the original ideals of the teams in the late 1800s.

In the early days, internal matches only were played between the two academic parts of the school, Classical v Modern. Matches were finally played against clubs in the 1870s and in 1885, Cheltenham College drew against an Oxford University side which included two Scottish internationals. The first fixture against a school appears to have been in 1892 against Wellington College, with the first regular fixture against Rugby School in 1896. This fixture is maintained to this day.

By the end of World War II, 40 Cheltonians had become international players and there were also a myriad of Oxford and Cambridge Blues. Since the war College has continued to produce a number of renowned players, with Simon Danielli and Nick Abendanon being the most recent Old Cheltonians to gain full international honours. There are now 14 rugby sides at College, with the 2008 season memorably seeing the 1st XV record its first unbeaten season for 51 years.