England Come Out On Top Against Ireland In The Rugby Legends Fixture

Ex-Irish prop, Gary Halpin was part of the Irish Legends team which included the likes of Simon Best, Shane Byrne, Trevor Brennan, David Corkery, Leo Cullen, Jan Cunningham, Kieran Dawson, Mick Galwey, Marcus Horan, Paddy Johns, John Kelly, Simon Mason, Stan McDowell, Nick Popplewell, Frankie Sheahan, Jeremy Staunton, Liam Toland, James Topping, Paddy Wallace. Jon Goodridge was part of the England Legends managed by Jason Leonard, the 114 time capped World Cup winner, with fellow World Cup winners Martin Corry (64 caps) and Iain Balshaw (34 caps) lining out for the England Legends.

As well as being a Housemaster and teacher at Christ College, Gary also coaches 1st team rugby at the school. Jon Goodridge was appointed as Director of Rugby at Christ College in 2013 after retiring as a professional player having played for the likes of Leeds, Gloucester and Bristol. Jon’s strong links with Bristol RFC have seen two of the Christ College 1st XV selected to play for Bristol Academy.

Kick-off was at 7.30pm on Saturday 28th February with Gary playing prop for Ireland and Jon at inside centre for their opponents. In a high scoring game, England came out on top beating Ireland 54-34. The fixture is always played for the Stuart Mangan Memorial Cup and this year funds were raised for the IRFU Charitable Trust. Apart from a few scrapes and bruises no serious injuries were sustained as it was back to school on Monday!