Daily Mail Schools Competition

Daily Mail Schools Cup News: Finals Day Preview

Welcome to the Finals Day preview edition of Daily Mail Schools Cup News, the regular information service from the Rugby Football Union about the biggest schools knockout cup competition in the world.

Contained within this issue, you will find results news ahead of the Twickenham appearances on April 5 of London Leisure College from Greenwich and Langley Park Schools from Beckenham in the Daily Mail Schools Under-18 Vase and Under-15 Vase finals.

If you require further information please call Simon Mills, RFU London & South East Press Officer on 07702 661214. For the home of schools rugby and daily results updates please log on to www.schoolsrugby.co.uk

LONDON LEISURE COLLEGE AND LANGLEY PARK PREPARE FOR TWICKENHAM

London Leisure College are preparing for their Twickenham debut with a three-day training camp in France. The teenagers from south east London launch their bid to lift the Daily Mail Schools Under-18 Vase from the rugby centre at Soustons, on the Atlantic coast near Biarritz.

The college side take on Lymm High School on April 5 (2pm) after demolishing Lady Manners School from Bakewell 40-3 in the semi-final.

“The boys are very excited about the whole occasion – if anything, I’ve had to pull them back a bit and calm them down,” said coach Steve Pope.

“I know Lymm fancy their chances, so it should be an exciting game. Lymm have some good players – particularly at half-back – and look very well organised. I hope our boys will make a good fist of it and enjoy the day for what it is.

“We’d already planned to go away, so we’ll fly back on Monday, go straight to our hotel and then to the ground the next day.

“Soustons gives us the chance to spend some time together, relax, and put together some of the patterns I’d like to see us run in the final.”

Captain Jack Knight (2), Tom Best, Frankie Neale, Saffian Hussain and Matt Ashendon scored the semi-final tries with Neale kicking five conversions.

Fly-half Neale, on the books of the Saracens Academy, has been marked out as a potential professional star of the future by Pope.

This season he has broken into the Blackheath first team – playing at full-back alongside former England star Paul Sampson and ex-Wasps wing Shane Roiser.

“He’s a nice level-headed kid who’ll have a big fan club with him at Twickenham,” said Pope. “With a bit of luck and good guidance he’ll have a good future in the game.” The London Leisure College, based at Charlton Athletic’s football ground and drawing largely on local boys from Lewisham and Catford, has developed into an important sporting academy over the last three seasons.

The College runs a high-quality rugby programme in association with the Blackheath club and Kent RFU that sees the players receive nine hours of coaching each week.

Head coach Pope can call on the expertise of Kent Rugby Development Officer Chris Wilkins and former Wasps scrum-half Harvey Biljon.

London Leisure College’s road to the final: beat Chatham House w/o, beat Bethany 19-0 (a), beat Maidstone GS 30-7 (h), beat Langley Park 16-15 (h), beat Tiffin 17-3, beat Torquay GS 27-5 (a), beat Lady Manners 40-3.

Langley Park are warning their fans to prepare for another nail-biting finish when they tackle John Cleveland College at Twickenham in the final of the Daily Mail Schools Under-15 Vase (11am).

The Beckenham school sided scored two minutes from time to beat Hutton GS 12-5 in the semi-final at RFU Castlecroft a fortnight ago.

And they’re preparing to make their fitness tell in the wide open spaces of the home of English rugby next week. “The whole season had been about getting to Twickenham so now we’ve got there the target is to work out how to win the next game. John Cleveland are big, well organised and physical opponents.

“We think we can beat them in a game between two well-matched teams who play in different styles. If we can cope with their physicality, we’ll be fitter and faster.

“It’s going to be close again and it’ll be decided late in the game by a single score. The size of the pitch might have an impact that favours us and we’ll be looking at how we can use the extra space in the build-up.”

The player to exploit that space could be centre Matt Grannell, who scored twice against Hutton with full-back Alex Brill converting his second try.

Grannell has now scored 20 tries this season and is an outstanding all-round sportsman. This week he was in the school’s under-18 hockey side lining up against Kingston GS in the National Schools Final.

Surrey flanker Dean Connor – a member of the London Irish junior academy – leads the side at Twickenham.

Langley Park’s road to the final: beat St Dunstans 47-5, beat Warden Park 22-5, beat BETHS 17-14, beat Brighton College 22-13, beat Bishop Wordsworth’s 38-10, beat Hutton GS 12-5.

FINALS DAY FIXTURES Daily Mail Under-15 Vase final: Langley Park v John Cleveland College (11am) Daily Mail Under-15 Cup final: Bedford v QEGS Wakefield (12.15pm) Daily Mail Under-18 Vase final: London Leisure College v Lymm HS (2pm) Daily Mail Under-18 Cup final: Durham v St Peter’s VI Form Centre, Gloucester (3.30pm)

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