Henry started his early years as a footballer for Brigg Town, Appleby Frodingham, and then North Ferriby.  His father Sean, having also attended private school advised Henry to start rugby to enhance his experience through Hymers when he decided to attend from Year 7.

He started in the A-Team for every age group at Hymers.  Along the way, he also played with some of his teammates for Hull Ionians U15/16’s where they also won the Yorkshire Cup and gained the eye of Yorkshire County.  At this point, he decided to follow rugby full-time.

Therefore, Henry’s passion for rugby started at Hymers College, culminating in captaining the U16 VII’s to finals day at Rosslyn Park in 2016, a fantastic achievement for a small (non-sports-scholarship) school!

With this form, he then went to Sedbergh school for 6th Form, where his rugby progress grew exponentially with the opportunity to play and train with the best in the country. He excelled here by breaking into their 1st XV, 1st VII, and 1st X squads as a starting player, earning full school colors along the way.

This culminated in three National Titles in the 2017/18 Upper Sixth season:

1. The Daily Mail Trophy
2. The HSBC School Sevens Rosslyn Park
3. The Sedbergh National Super Tens

This excellence set the scene for Sedbergh to grow a three-year unbeaten run on a national schools rugby circuit.

A phenomenal achievement, as Henry was the only non-premiership academy or internationally capped player to start in all three teams.

Beyond the school level, he then secured a full varsity athlete scholarship to Central Washington university.  The “Wildcats” were undefeated in the NINE games that Henry started for them, where he in turn helped them improve from #16 in D1AA to #3 nationally at the time!

Since his untimely passing, the response from Hymers, Sedbergh, CWU, the rugby community, and friends & family has been simply unbelievable.

Due to the impact that Henry had made, FirstPoint USA has committed to raising the “Henry Foster Scholarship” where they will send a male and female rugby player each year on a scholarship. Applicants will be down-selected by FirstPoint USA to a shortlist and Henry’s father Sean will then be involved in selecting the final player(s) to receive the prestigious annual award, a lasting legacy for Henry.

Likewise Central Washington recently, with the Foster family present, unveiled a memorial on the cross-bar on the rugby pitch in the Tomlinson Stadium, where he will be forever on the pitch with them as their 16th man. This is an unbelievable lasting gesture in memory of Henry for, what is generally considered a minor varsity athletics sport in the USA currently.

Henry will be forever remembered and provide the drive and determination he played with for countless Wildcats as they run onto the Tomlinson Stadium for each home game, with their 16th man playing alongside them!

Alongside all of the International efforts, it is his original rugby school that is keeping his memory alive with the "Henry Foster Seven’s Tournament", hosted at Hymers College. Its inaugural tournament was a roaring success, where over 200+ players registered with 14 adult teams and 4 U17 teams competing – along with a staggering 750+ people watching.

Hymers have kindly agreed to repeat this wonderful day of rugby in 2022, to be played in the best possible spirit of the game and will be organised by Henry’s good friends and Hymers alumni (Finlay Ulrick, Joel Chapman, Owen Day, Theo Richardson) and, of course, Mr Cook.

Photo below of Hymers v Sedbergh at The Henry Foster Sevens, July 2021.

Article provided and written by Henry's father, Sean.