Collegiate exchange culture and rugby

The younger Wanganui Collegiate lads will exchange culture and sport on the rugby field this weekend when Millfield School arrives from England.

Wanganui Collegiate School will exchange culture and rugby prowess this weekend with the arrival of Millfield School from England.

Millfield is today one of the leading UK independent schools for boys and girls, aged 2-18 years and founded in 1935.

Millfield Pre-Prep, Prep and Senior Schools are situated in the beautiful rural southwest of England in the county of Somerset. Millfield Prep is in the historic town of Glastonbury within a 10 minute drive from Millfield, located in Street.

The area is the home of the famous Glastonbury Festival.

WCS director of sport Barry Touzel said the exchange was part of a New Zealand rugby tour involving the Millfield Under-15 and Under-16 squads.

"WCS and Millfield School have an association, in that their headmaster, Craig Considine, was headmaster at WCS before taking up a post with Millfield nine years ago," Touzel said.

"At Wanganui Collegiate School we are mindful of developing strong relationships between schools and fostering these through sports exchanges and particularly international fixtures. In the past few years these have included teams from South Africa and Britain."

The visitors will be billeted by Collegiate families and will play two matches at the school on Saturday - the Under-15 game at 12 noon and the Under-16 clash at 1.30pm.

Touzel, who also coaches the WCS Under-16 team, said both grades would be able to field mostly full strength sides despite the school holidays.

"I think three of my team may be missing unable to return from overseas in time, but other than that I think our teams will be close to full strength," Touzel said.