Daily Mail Trophy for Boys-U18A in Rugby Union for 2025/26

The start of the 2012/13 season marked the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Team Leagues on the Schools' Rugby Website. They attract millions of page views every year and continue to be very popular and hotly debated by coaches, players, parents, alumni and followers around the World – indeed by everyone passionate about rugby at the grassroots.

Of the 3,000+ rugby playing schools in the UK, there are approximately 70 schools that play against at least 5 schools within the same group. The Daily Mail Trophy is based on these shared opponents. Whilst similar to the Performance and All Comers league, The Daily Mail Trophy is reflective of schools playing strong and long established fixtures. You can see The Daily Mail Trophy from 2007 to date.

The Daily Mail Trophy is another way of examining the data, whilst being non-disruptive, highlighting the schools that play some of the toughest fixtures and giving more profile to schools not entering the various national competitions. As always data is presented in an interesting way, keeping it simple and transparent with the usual links to a team's playing and past performance records.

The AASE teams as well as NatWest Cup fixtures (known as the Daily Mail Cup/Vase in previous seasons) trial, pre-season, festival and short format competition fixtures, such as St Jos, are omitted. Only fixtures played during the autumn term are included.

How to Enter

To enter The Daily Mail Trophy a school simply has to play against at least 5 other schools in The Daily Mail Trophy group of schools during the autumn term.

1. All participating schools agree to adhere to these competition rules and terms.
2. Entry is open to Under 18, 1st XV, teams playing a minimum of 5 schools already taking part in the Daily Mail Trophy.
3. Pre-season, festival and other competition fixtures do not count.
4. Schools taking part in the Daily Mail Trophy are entered automatically for the following season, providing a school does not weaken it's fixture list and continues to play the minimum of 5 Daily Mail Trophy fixtures. To see schools participating from last season click through to the Daily Mail Trophy Merit Table and select last season.
5. Schools wishing to take part in the Daily Mail Trophy for the first time should email support@misocs.com by 1 August with confirmation of their fixtures and dates. Entry closes on 1 August.
6. All fixtures should be agreed with opponents before 30th September. Fixtures arranged after this date will not be considered to be part of the competition.
7. If a competition fixture is cancelled at short notice, and a replacement opponent can be found at short notice, then the fixture will count; as long as this does not increase your total number of agreed trophy fixtures.
8. The Daily Mail Trophy runs during the autumn term. Only fixtures scheduled during this time period count towards a team’s ranking.
9. Daily Mail Trophy Merit Table Points are awarded as follows: 4 points for a win, 2 points for a draw, 0 points for a loss. Bonus points: 1 point for scoring 4 tries or more, 1 point for losing by 7 points or less.
10. 2013 Merit Table - the inaugural year for the Trophy A team's ranking in the 2013 Merit table is based the average number of league points scored per game + 0.1 points per game played.
11. Merit Table A team's ranking in the Merit table (except 2013 - see above) is based on the average number of league points scored per game + a bonus point determined by your opponent's ranking in the previous season's Merit Table:
    • Rank: 1 to 25 Bonus = 0.3
    • Rank: 26 to 50 Bonus = 0.2
    • Rank: 51 to 75 Bonus = 0.1
    • Rank > 75 Bonus = 0
    • Example 1: If you play a team ranked 15th in last year’s merit table you will be awarded 0.3 bonus points, whether you win, draw or lose
    • Example 2: If you play a team ranked 60th in last year’s merit table you will be awarded 0.1 bonus points, whether you win, draw or lose