Victorious pupils from St Lawrence’s Primary School in Church Stretton will have the honour of playing at Twickenham ahead of the autumn international between England and New Zealand after winning the national tag rugby finals.
The youngsters played brilliantly to win the final at Rugby School the spiritual home of the game on Wednesday against last year’s champions Holy Trinity Lamorbey from Sidcup in Kent .
Now the eight boys and four girls will play an exhibition match as a curtain-raiser at Twickenham on November 21, having won nine games to bring home the coveted trophy.
Twenty schools took part in the national championship, representing 10 regions in the UK.
Stretton qualified for their place in the final by winning a competition at West Mercia Police HQ at Hindlip, and then coming runners-up in the Midlands area final which took place at Lichfield.
As part of the West Mercia Police Tag Rugby Project, the pupils have been supported by PC Paul Sparrow and CSO Shaun Culliss of the Ludlow Rural Local Policing Team, and both officers were at Rugby School cheering the youngsters on.
The Stretton school’s head of PE, Ralph Davies, said the team had shown great character and determination and fully deserved their victory.
“We are now trying to get tickets for Twickenham so that parents can see their children play, and would be grateful if anyone can help us with this,” he said.
“What a fantastic day!” said one of the St Lawrence coaches, Martyn Longhurst.
“They all played really well and what a final. We started training together a couple of months ago at the beginning of May, but I’m sure they’ll be doing it for the rest of their lives after this moment. We scarcely knocked the ball on all day, which for 10-year-olds is pretty special, isn’t it?”
