As 1st XV Captain in his final year, Charlie, a former Faber House student, played at the U18s World Cup for Ireland and was awarded a Silver Cap by the school. After leaving The Oratory, he went on to play in the Premiership for Newcastle Falcons, Wasps and Sale Sharks, before ending his rugby career at London Scottish. He has since co-founded Versa Studios, a TV production company.

Charlie's talk focused on four central tenets he believes are beneficial in all avenues, not simply sport. These are knowledge, self-belief, accountability, and enjoyment.

On the first, he said, “you get a lot of people giving you advice, but the skill is to listen to the bits that will help you. Forget the rest. This has probably never been as important as now, with so much misinformation out there. Ask the questions which help work your nutrition, your mindset, and your training.”

Moving onto his second theme, Charlie continued, “I wasn’t always in the A team in 3rd Form. Physically, I was so skinny, and I hated being in and out of the team, but I had self-belief and it changed the way my career went. It’s been the biggest thing for me. I came back the year after faster and stronger – I wanted to be a rugby player, and no-one could tell me otherwise.

My belief grew and grew as I went through the years, and I realised if I put the effort in and wanted to achieve something, I could. You can apply this to anything in life."

He went on to explain that, "accountability and discipline are two of the most important skills you can have. All the best players I was with, when we reviewed a game, if they made a mistake, they would put their hand up. It helps you grow because it allows you to improve yourself."

His final piece of advice was to "enjoy whatever you do – if you do, you’ll be so much better at it!”

A lively Q&A session with students followed, with Charlie commenting that another Old Oratorian, Danny Cipriani (OS: 1999-2001), was the most talented teammate he played with. He also talked about the Oratory Dog - the way The Oratory ‘punches above its weight’, and about the way his year group drove each other to new heights – Benny Howell, Dan Housego, Michael Roberts and Simon Steel all played professional cricket, while Alex Pearce was an Ireland international footballer who made more than 200 appearances for Reading FC: “We all set standards which you were always trying to top, and I’m sure it helped us all!”

Thank you very much to Charlie – it was great to see you back at The Oratory School!