The College has 5 rugby fields. The main field, our 1st XV field, is called the Piley Rees, our U16s play on the Sahara, U15s on the Range, U14s on the Cemetery, and Opens on the Avenue.
We also have four fields outside the College Campus on Riverton rd known as Lutgensvale, but these are used primarily by the Prep school.
The Piley Rees Field is named after the legendary schoolmaster and rugby coach. Rees was a master at Bishops from 1922 to 1967. He died in 1975 and the field was named after him in 1983.
Our rugby pavilion and clubhouse, the Heatlie Pavilion, was rebuilt in 2009, houses our function room, home and visitors’ changing-rooms, a referees’ changing-room, a physiotherapist and medical room, storage facilities, tuckshop, and the main grandstand alongside the field.
The actual function room of the Heatlie is known as the Basil Bey room, named after the legendary master and coach who taught at Bishops from 1971 to 1998. The stand is named after Tim Hamilton-Smith (1968 to 2007). Both appropriately named given their extraordinary service to the school, and in particular, to the game of rugby.
We have resident physiotherapists who practice full time out of their rooms next to the Sanatorium, and move into the Heatlie on match day. We also have a full time Doctor on Campus, each match day, together with the Emergency Services medical teams contracted to serve the school.
The top fields to the right of the Avenue take their names from their location. The Avenue Field was, and still is, next to the Avenue. The Range was next to the old shooting range before it was moved to the far side of the Oaks. Parallel and next to the Range is the Cemetery, because it was next to the old cemetery behind St Thomas’s Church. This is now replaced by the hockey astroturf, but prior to that being built, the space was used as a field aptly called the Graveyard. The fields off Riverton road were once a farm. Acquired by JW Lutgens in 1799, that low-lying part was called Lutgensvale where four fields are now in operation.
The Rick Skeeles Pavilion on Lutgensvale was built in honour of Richard Skeeles – the legendary and much-loved Prep 1st XV coach and master.
On the coaching front we have a High Performance Committee (HPC) tasked with implementing the school’s rugby programme. The HPC consists of College TIC Ronnie Jacobs, College 1st XV coach Wes Chetty, Prep TIC Brendan Fogarty, Rob Fleck, Rick Evans and Tank Lanning. The programme includes developing the coaches, coaching all school teams, as well as developing a rugby infrastructure aimed at keeping us relevant and competitive in the WP Schools league, perhaps the most hotly contested school league in the world!
The U14, U15 and U16 age groups are run by professional High Performance Managers who report into the HPC, and every team has at least two coaches. In an ever-changing academic staff environment, our challenge is to try and have at least one staff member involved with every team.
Together with our SPW team at the school, we also employ former Springbok conditioning coach, Steve McKintyre, who looks after the specific physical conditioning of our main rugby squads.