#1Mar 21st, 2007
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Top public school pupils expelled for sex on historic playing field
by DAVID WILKES and ANDY DOLAN
20th March 2007
The two soccer teams chase William Webb Ellis as he picks the ball up and runs with it during the game. And so came about the origins of Rugby Union, Rugby League and Gridiron
It is the spot where William Webb Ellis famously broke the rules and invented a new sport.
But when two amorous sixth-formers were caught trying their own version of rough and tumble on the playing fields at Rugby School, the authorities took a far dimmer view.
The girl and boy were both expelled for breaking strict rules banning sex between pupils.
Passion is believed to have run high among the two 17-year-olds as they celebrated the end of the Lent Term at the £22,000-a-year public school.
Caught in the act: The students were spotted on The Close at Rugby School, which is a shrine to the game of rugby
Unable to contain their feelings any longer, they ventured out into the night for a tryst at the spot where rugby was born.
But the pair's passion was kicked into touch - and their academic futures thrown into jeopardy - when a member of staff stumbled over them in the dark as he walked across the field.
The scene of their liaison was The Close, a large playing field where in 1823 Webb Ellis was playing football when he picked up the ball and ran with it.
Thousands of rugby fans come from all over the world to visit the site every year.
The school's communications director, Dr Jonathan Smith, said: "Two pupils were asked to leave the school ten days ago for infringing the school guidelines regarding personal relationships.
"We have clear rules on these matters which everyone in the school community understands.'
Founded in 1567, Rugby School - motto 'orando laborando' ('by work and prayer') - has 800 pupils and has been accepting girls since 1993.
The expelled pupils were both thought to be aged 17 and among the school's 669 boarders.
They were caught having sex while other pupils were attending the school's Saturday evening Crescent Club which allows them to drink a maximum of two glasses of wine or beer with food.
But a school source said: "This incident has nothing to do with that. It was coincidence that this happened on the same night."
Letters were sent to their parents and the school's students were told of the incident the next day by their house-masters.
The excluded pupils will be allowed to return next term to sit their exams but in the meantime will have to continue their studies either at another school or with private tuition.
In the Merchant Inn, a favourite of Rugby School staff, the word yesterday was that the pupils were caught only because the teacher fell over them.
One drinker, who asked not be named, said: "They were smooching and in the throes of passion when apparently a teacher tripped over them while they were in the act.
"From what I've heard, he was walking back home from the school and took a short cut through the sports field.
"It was dark and he didn't see them until after he had tumbled to the ground. I'd imagine he was almost as embarrassed as them."
As well as being the birthplace of rugby, Rugby School is famous as the setting of the book Tom Brown's Schooldays.
Former pupils include Salman Rushdie, Neville Chamberlain, Lewis Carroll and three Archbishops of Canterbury.
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