Cheshire Under 20's win ( 24 ) v Kent ( 17 ) at Sale RUFC on 21/4/13.
Four Wilmslow players, Mark Williams, Olly McCall, Ben Jones and Max Harvey were joined by ex Wilmslow Junior George Drury ( now Macclesfield) following a shoulder injury to Wilmslow player Ollie Chambers to play in this semi final fixture.
The history of Heywood Road, home of Sale Rugby FC, has over the years been the venue for many sparkling displays of both teamwork and individual talent. It has been a stage for international and individual success with home grown talent such as Steve Smith, Fran Cotton, Tony Bond and others. It was therefore fitting that Kent who were fielding no less than 5 England Under 20 players took to the stage giving an unhindered demonstration of their own ability and intention, entering the changing room with a half time 0-17 advantage.
For many spectators, there was already an acceptance that the result was now beyond the reach of the tenacious Cheshire underdogs and the inevitable consequence of this contest would now bring their already successful campaign to an abrupt halt.
As Sir Clive Woodward said in the build up to his 2003 World Cup campaign when things didn't go to plan .... " We made errors, we made mistakes and we've got to fix them very very quickly ...."
Although no one other than the team will ever know the content of Coach Giles Heagerty's half time debrief, it is apparent his thoughts were also in a similar vein, very very quickly being the key!!
There was no shouting or screaming to be heard from outside the inner sanctum. Inside one can only surmise that there was honest reflective dialogue taking place to allow that change to occur. The inspiration injected presented a different Cheshire team for the last 40 minutes, It was in fact now the same team of tenacious young underdogs who had already substantiated 'right of passage' in their latter two encounters against previous national champions Yorkshire and Gloucester.
In summary, an initial monopoly of play by Kent in the first half with three tries to their favour, was assigned to history when despite their best efforts, they were never permitted to close upon the Cheshire try line for the remaining 40 minutes of play.
A combination of quick thinking, successful tackles and true belief, not only kept the determined and skilful visitors at bay, but set a firm platform from where this Cheshire U20's team cascaded a superb series of phases in their honed passages of play. The 17-17 result quickly followed. More was needed. More was to come!
Merely an equalising score was always going to be insufficient for these voracious Cestrians, leading to a determined score breaking try and conversion in the last minutes of the game from which Kent had no return.
Kent's defences were simply deluged by a quality rugby demonstration that was missing in the earlier segment of the game. The final score was 17- 24, setting this bonded group of players to now face Berkshire in the National Championship Final at Twickenham on Saturday 4th May, 5.00pm kick off.
Coach Heagerty, Manager Ian Stanton and U 20's Chairman Paul Langton were keen to remind the squad that the hard work now begins, and the next 80 minutes holds all. Before leaving for the evening the players were made aware of their new training schedule, meanwhile the gracious Kent team had a long reflective coach ride home.
Berkshire themselves will be fielding a further Wilmslow Wolf Jack Harrison who is in his second year studies at Reading.
Come along to watch a great game of rugby!
Match report by Nick Jones.
