Benedict's Fall at Final Hurdle

Heartbreak this year, high hopes for next

St. Benedict's School first XV have been beaten in the semi-final of the Daily Mail Cup. The heartbreaking loss by 10-5 to Warwick School in a match held in Wolverhampton meant that the boys miss out on a chance to play at Twickenham.

The team had anticipated a hard battle in the match against a big Warwick pack. The Ealing school had been able to call on the assistance of All-Black legend and Wasps' forward coach, Craig Dowd who has children at the school. However, even this wasn't enough to nullify the weight advantage of the Midlanders who dominated in set pieces.

In some ways the defeat was expected as the school had set reaching the semi-finals as their target at the start of the season. 11 of the starting line-up were from the lower sixth and will be available for next season as well as key player, Rowan Halsall, who was injured for this match. This year group was the one that triumphed at Twickenham at the U-15 age level and they will start next year's competition as one of the hot favourites.

March 7, 2007