London & South East U16s were the only English side to secure a victory in the second day of the BMW Wellington International Festival yesterday.

The day began with the North U16s taking on Scotland U16s. The North had begun the Festival well, beating France West 15-0 on Sunday, while Scotland had drawn with Wales Druids.

However it has Scotland who seized the initiative on Day Two, putting the North under all manner of territorial pressure during a lengthy first half period before the scoreboard became troubled.

When eventually it was troubled is was inevitably from Scotland who raced out to a 26-7 lead with some truly outstanding play and four tries from Bruce Sorbie, Sam Yawayawa, Charlie Shiel and Tom Klein, guided by the Man of the Match, fly half Gregor Haldane.

England had the last say of the game though through a second try from Jordon Olowofela, leaving the game at North U16s 14-26 Scotland U16s.

Whilst that game was going on the South West U16s were looking for their first victory of the Festival after going down 43-12 to Wales Celts. They took on a France East U16s side who had squeaked to victory of the Midlands U16s on Sunday, 14-12.

There was to be no such squeaking to victory this time though, France East absolutely blasted their way to victory, beating the South West U16s 44-0 – an utterly dominant display.

The South West stuck at their task admirably though, with several players impressing ahead of the combined fixtures on Saturday.

Having seen the devastation that France East caused the South West, the Midlands would have headed into the following game, v Wales Druids, feeling pretty good about themselves having only lost by two points to the French side on Sunday.

The Druids will have had a decent amount of confidence too after the day’s early results though, they had drawn with Scotland on the opening day, so to see Scotland play so well against the North U16s will have left the Druids feeling that they are very competitive.

It seemed that perhaps they were not though during the first half of this game though as the Midlands ran in two excellent tries from Charlton Kerr and Harry Robinson to give themselves a 10-3 half time lead.

They continued with that fine form at the start of the second half as Robinson went over for a brilliant second try, just managed to dot down a clever grubber though before it crept out of play, fending off the defensive cover brilliantly in the process.

That seemed to act as some kind of inspiration for Wales Druids though, the young Welshmen raised their performance levels immeasurably, causing chaos at the breakdown and playing with a ferocity in Midfield that belied their years.

Their efforts were soon rewarded with a try for scrum half Efan Jones, a typical scrum half’s try as he sniped around the fringes to dot down underneath the posts.

The Druids kept plugging away and with just minutes left on the clock they were rewarded with a second try as Cameron Lewis barged through the Midlands defence and levelled the scores at 15-15, giving the Druids their second draw in two games.

That left the London & South East U16s with the task of trying to secure the only English victory of the day when they took on the Wales Celts at 16.00.

Both sides had enjoying thumping victories on the opening day, the Celts had won 43-12 against the South West, while London & South East had beaten Italy U17s 38-5.

Tries from Ben Kelland, Will Kaye, and two excellent Callum Sirker tries gave London and South East a 24-5 half-time lead and had many imagining that there would be a huge score posted by the end of the game, such was the level of the English side’s play.

However in the second half the Celts came absolutely flying out of the traps, tries from Keelan Giles and Ioan Nicholas, added to Steffan Gibbon’s first half effort brought the score to 24-19 in the English side’s favour and left a tense final fifteen minutes to be played out.

Both sides put everything into it but a Sam Morely penalty for London & South East stretched the scoreline out to 27-19 to take the game away from the Celts, giving London & South East the only English victory of the day.

The final day of the Festival, on Saturday, sees the English sides combine into effectively England U16 A, B, C, and D, while France combine to from France U16 and France U16 A, while the Welsh, Scottish, and Italian sides remain as they are.

BMW Wellington International Festival Fixtures & Results:

Day One:

North U16 15-0 France West

Midlands U16 12-14 France East

London & South East U16 38-5 Italy

South West U16 12-43 Wales Celts

Scotland U16 29-29 Wales Druids

Day Two

South West U16 0-44 France East

North U16 14-26 Scotland U16

Midlands U16 15-15 Wales Druids

London & South East U16 27-19 Wales Celts

Day Three

10.00 England Roses U16 v England Lions U16

12.00 England Saxons U16 v Scotland U16

12.00 Wales Druids v France U16

14.30 Wale Celts v France A

14.30 England U16 v Italy U17

Teams:

North U16s:

1. George Armstrong (Woodhouse Grove)  2. Ben Gregory (Deanery High)  3. Adam Mohammed (Gosforth)  4. Max Davies (Sedbergh)  5. Will Bowi (Guiseley)  6. Lewis Wilson (Woldgate College)   7. Ben Curry (Bishop Heber)  8. Matt Peakman (King’s Macclesfield)  9. Will Hodgson (King’s Macclesfield)  10. James Grayson (Northampton School For Boys)  11. Connor Stewart (Whitney Bay High School)  12. Jack Beevers (Caldy Grange Grammar)  13.  Jordon Olowefela (Lincoln Minster)  14.  Armani Roberts (Bishop Heber)  15. Ben Stevenson (Yarm).

Replacements: 16. George Williams (Fallilbroome)  17. Jamie Blairmire (Stainburn)  18. Will Dennis (Selby High)  19. Elliot Ward (QEGS Wakefield)  20. Charlie Gowling (Sedbergh)  21. Tom Curry (Bishop Heber)  22. Josh Wright.

Scotland U16s:

1. Jamie Ross  2. Graham Allan  3. Ewan Malloch,  4. Hamish Horne  5 Andrew Horne  6. Kenneth Drummond  7. Ben Scoular  8. Lloyd Clark  9. Gary Munro  10. Gregor Haldane  11. Thomas Klein  12. Ewan Fox (c)  13. Gregor Paxton  14. Sam Yawayawa  15. Bruce Sorbe.

Replacements: 16. Ralph Johnston  17. Paul Cairncross  18. Calum Eastwood  19. Alan Gregory  20. George Blackwell  21. Matthew Fagerson  22. Charlie Shiel  23. Charlie Longergan  24. Mark New  25. Ross McCann  26. Aaron Tait.

South West U16s:

1. Sam Miller (Wallingford)  2. Jake Anderson (St.Edward’s, Oxford)  3. Will Vaughn (Heathfield Community College)  4. Jack Holford (Abingdon)  5. Ross Barnes (Pittville)  6. Zak Smith (Prior Park)  7. Jack Ingall (Wellington College)  8. Josh Bayliss (Millfield)  9. Matt Marsh (Stowe)  10. Jacob Atkins (Forest)  11. Dan Beachus (Cheltenham College)  12. Michael Marsden (John Hampden)  13. Mason Tonks (Dene Magna)  14. Aaron Chapman (King’s College Taunton)  15. Sam Telling (Abingdon).

Replacements: 16. Liam Hilliar  17. Gabriel Oghre  18. Marcus Street  19. Charlie Fethney  20. Matt Solway  21. Declan Matthews  22. Jack West  23. George Clair  24. Fergus Hamilton. 

Midlands U16s:

1. Seb Deans-Smith (Charlton School)  2. David Hickey (Bedford School)  3.Jake Charters (Oakham)  4. Toby Hutchinson (Longfield Academy)  5. James Newman (King’s Grantham)  6. Zac Xiourouppa (Ellesmere)  7. Charlie Morgan (Solihull)  8. Zac Poole (De Aston School)  9. Ben White (Denstone College)  10. Matt Riddington (Oakham)  11. Harry Robinson (The Chase)  12. William Butler (Hereford Cathedral)  13. Tosin Segun (Stowe)  14. Adam Shaw (Princethorpe)  15. Charlton Kerr (Stowe School).

Replacements: 16. George Cave  17. Henry Walker  18. Joseph Morris  19. Kailus Hutchingson  20. Jake Carter  21. Ben Fowles  22. Joshua Nott  23. Jacob Umaga  24. Fergus Hamilton.

Wales Druids:

1. Corey Hewlett  2. Wade Langley  3. Ben Warren  4. Shane Lewis Hughes  5. Ceri Sylvester  6. Ashley Gibson  7. Lloyd Pike (c)  8. Morgan Morris  9. Efan Jones  10. Callum Price  11. Mike Wallis  12. Declan Williams  13. Owen Lane  14. Llyr Davies  15. Tom Howell.

Replacements: 16. Corrie Tarrant  17. Rhys Carre  18. Jordon Davies  19. Jack Pope  20. Will Jones  21. Harri Randall  22. Cameron Lewis  23. Gethin Gibby  24. Garin Lougher.

London & South East U16s:

1.  Seb Brownhill (Richard Hale)  2. Harrison King (Fitzwimarck)  3. Tom Simmons (Chislehurst & Sidcup GS)  4. Lars Heidrich (St.Paul’s)  5. Nick Isiekwe (Nicholas Breakspear)  6. Matt Watson  7. Will Glover (Harrow)  8. Scott Griffin (RGS Colchester)  9. Freddie Hatton (Rodding Valley HS)  10. Jake Duffield (Langley)  11. Toni Kuku (Stowe)  12. Roman Malin Hiscock (Hampton)  13. Reuben Bird-Tulloch (Eltham College)  14. Callum Sirker (Harrow)  15. Will Kaye (Hautlieu). 

Replacements: 16. Zack Santos (Hampton) 17. Matt Kouris (Wavell School)  18. Jack Longhurst (Fitzwimarck)  19. Sam Morley (Whitgift)  20. Ben Kelland (Royal Hospital)  21. Gabriel Ibitoye (Trinity)  22. Ben Earl (Tonbridge)  23. Isaac Curtis-Harris (Fort Hill)  24. Jack Holford (Abingdon)  25. Dan Wheatley (Steyning Grammar)  26. Ehren Painter (Felsted).

Wales Celts:

 1. Steffan Gibbon (Gowerton)  2.Hugo Souto (Corpus Christi)  3.Joel Edwards (Rhymney Comp)  4. James Ratti (Bishopston)  5. Max Williams (St.Joseph’s High)  6. Liam Hayes (Denbigh High)  7. Owain Ellis (Ysgol Llanhari)  8.Josh Reid (Clifton College)  9. Tom Lucas (Cowbridge Comp)  10. Zac Byard (Pontypridd High)  11. Patric Lewis (Lewis School)  12. Ioan Nicholas (Maes Y Gwendraeth)  13. Ellis Jones (Caerleon Comp) 14. Keelan Giles (Goweton Comp)  15. Tom Sheppard (Ysgol Gyfyn Cymer).

Replacements: 16. Harri Dodds  17. Jordan Liney  18. Johnathan Clout  19. Jack Cambriani  20. Callum Bradbury  21. Phil Jones  22. Cameron Gibbon  23. Jared Rosser  24. Declan Smith  25. Joe Thomas.