James Melville branded his Harrow School rugby team ‘special’ after they punched a dream ticket to Twickenham for the Continental Tyres Schools Cup final.
Harrow under-18s were excellent in their semi-final against Blundell’s School, easing to a 39-14 victory in Aylesbury thanks a fine attacking display.
Zachary Uduehi scored a brilliant hat-trick, while Cameron Knight, Reggie Hammick and a penalty try sent Harrow to the final – with a proud Melville hailing their special team spirit.
“It is the way they are all connected,” the master-in-charge of rugby said.
“They have been on tour in South Africa, full-time boarding school means they are all together and I think the support in the crowd shows how much it means to the boys and the school.
“That toughness, that togetherness is probably what defines them as a group and they have been a special bunch to work with for the past five years.
“We came here knowing the quality that we had but we have taken on some injuries, losing our captain and full-back, who are both England U18 players and we didn’t know how the boys would react to that.
“The first 20 minutes showed they were right on and ready to go. The accuracy, the composure and the clarity on what we want to do was outstanding considering we hadn’t played for three months.”
Continental Tyres and the RFU are working together to grow rugby through school-linked activity and 171,404 age grade players have registered to play this season, almost 3,000 more than the overall figure last year.
Harrow will face Kirkham Grammar School in the final on March 14 after they beat Bromsgrove School 19-14 earlier on Saturday.
With 11 days to prepare for the challenge, Melville believes his team can improve on their most recent outing and lift silverware.
“It is going to be as today was. It is the battle between matching the occasion and the performance on the field,” he added.
“I think we have got a lot to look at ahead of Kirkham next week. Certainly, our composure around the goal line was a bit disappointing at times.
“I think we could have scored two or three more tries and put the game to bed a bit earlier and our fence around the goal line was a bit frustrating, they had some big ball carriers that we didn’t handle well enough and I would expect us to be better.”
The Continental Tyres Schools Cup is an important part of the age-grade rugby landscape in England, with schools’ rugby often where players fall in love with the game for the first time. For more information visit the Continental Tyres Schools Cup section of the England Rugby Website
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