Beechen Cliff won the U15 Schools Plate with a tremendous second half display to beat Kenilworth 36-14 at Twickenham on Wednesday.
Leading 12-7 at half time, they went behind early in the second half to a Finn Yallop try for Kenilworth, but the Bath based side showed their mettle to engineer four excellent scores, one just three minutes after Kenilworth’s, to put some comfortable distance between the two sides.
The star of the show was outside centre Will Morris, who scored three second half tries to help seal his sides victory.
It all began though ten minutes into the game through a wonderful solo try from outside half Ollie De Glanville, whose older brother Tom is in the England U18 squad and father Phil captained England. Number 8 and captain Jac Therrien, once again assumed the kicking duties and put his side 7-0 ahead.
Kenilworth rallied though, scoring six minutes later through their captain, number 8 Josh Marsden. Will Woolvine converted, levelling things up at 7-7. However Beechen Cliff bounced back shortly after as winger Charlie Delargy changed the momentum of the game with an interception to send his side in at half time 12-7 to the good.
When Kenilworth scored, and it was a superb try through Yallop, so early in the second half though it felt like a killer moment in the game, one that could launch the Midlands side to the title.
What it did instead, it seemed, was to inspire Beechen Cliff. From the moment they went behind they seemed doubly determined to give a good account of themselves, and that determination came flooding out in some wonderful, and at times highly intelligent, rugby.
Four tries followed, three to the exceptional Will Morris, and three of them created by the outstanding Ollie De Glanville. Morris’ first came just three minutes after Kenilworth had taken the lead and seemed to signal to both sides that this Beechen Cliff side were going nowhere.
Now they were flooding forward, and Kenilworth were being forced into adding more and more numbers to the defensive frontline. De Glanville spotted this, and this a great deftness of touch, dinked the ball behind the defence for Morris to gobble up the bouncing ball and grab his second, sending his team 24-14 ahead.
With under ten minutes left, the outside centre was at it again, this time playing a supporting role as Daniel Boyle almost went the length of the field. When he was hauled down barley inches from the line, Morris was on hand to dot down for a wonderful hat-trick.
The try of the game though came a few minutes later, when the game was almost done and dusted. De Glanville, showing Finn Russell like audacity, threw a wonderful pass right across the noses of the defence to put Morris away in space.
Morris, showing excellent awareness, drew his man and then sent another excellent pass away to Yuji Westmacott to score a run in. All that was left was the icing on the cake, and Therrien provided it with a superb conversion for the 36-14 lead.
It was a stunning way to end the game, a simply outstanding try to cap a genuinely outstanding second half display from Beechen Cliff.
U15 Schools Vase Final: Kenilworth 14-36 Beechen Cliff
Teams:
Kenilworth
15 James Rome, 14 Harry Weaver, 13 Finn Yallop, 12 Sam Pepitt, 11 Cameron Holden, 10 Will Woolvine, 9 Alex Bradley, 1 Dylan Hunter, 2 Kieran Behan, 3 Dylan Barnett, 4 Ben Tabberer, 5 Ethan Regan, 6 Ardal Yallop, 7 Harry Keen, 8 Josh Marsden (c).
Replacements: 16 Connor Poole, 17 Sam Johnson, 18 Alex Maynard, 19 Luke Cooling, 20 Sam Davey, 21 Dominic Rogers, 22 Josh May.
Beechen Cliff
15 Josh Carter, 14 Charlie Delargy, 13 Will Morris, 12 Daniel Boyle, 11 Archie Robertson, 10 Ollie De Glanville, 9 Nathan Clarke, 1 Morgan Cope, 2 Rufus Colman-Deveney, 3 Archie Maggs, 4 Finlay Blair, 5 Tommy Gould, 6 Mackenzie Graham, 7 Joshua Hays, 8 Jac Therrien (c).
Replacements: 16 Kumbi Kasiya, 17 James Strangways, 18 Jacob Hobson, 19 Jasper Spearman-Armistead, 20 Toby Hastings, 21 Yuji Westmacott, 22 Harvey James.
