Blundell's have flown flag for Devon for 150 years

Brendan Gallagher continues his series looking at rugby's great schools

- Brendan Gallagher

DEVON has a long and proud rugby tradition from their County Championship winning sides before World War 1 to Exeter Chiefs in modern times, but no rugby institution has flown the flag more vigorously over the centuries than Blundell’s School.

A rural rugby hotspot, Blundell’s have consistently punched well above their weight for a small one-term side and have a tradition of producing very distinctive players with larger than life personalities and lashings of panache and style.

The force of nature that was Clem Thomas would represent the former and the golden boy of English rugby, Richard Sharp, would epitomise the latter – but this is also the school that produced swashbuckling England centre Charlie Kent and hard-as-nails Australia flanker David Shepherd. Even their most distinguished cricketers like Vic Marks and Hugh Morris were schoolboy rugby players of some repute.

More recently the Maunder brothers Jack and Sam – both scrum-halves like their dad Andy and both now making their way with Exeter – have spearheaded strong school XVs. Jack made his England debut in Argentina off the bench in 2017 while Sam has already captained England U20.

Powerful centre Barrie Karea is another who has attracted the attention of Rob Baxter who prides himself in keeping tabs on any outstanding schoolboy players in the region.

Karea is a particularly interesting player with that discernible Blundell’s feel of being a little different. He hails from Kiribati, the Pacific Island nation which straddles both the equator and the international dateline, and lived there until age nine when his family moved to Devon. He started playing at QES Crediton and was soon honing his skills at Blundell’s in the same side as Jack Maunder.