Eton Manor U12s entered the The Land Rover cup for the first time, last weekend. The cup was hosted by Saracens, with the semi finals and finals being held o the Allianz park pitch before and at half time of the Premiership game between Sarries & Wasps.

The boys had an early start with their first pool game against Fullerians Kicking off at 9:20am, but the early start had no impact on the team, they scored 4 tries to 0, with some excellent work from the backs.

The second pool game was always going to be the hardest, against Chesthunt, the boys started well with another try from Maxwell settling the team down, the only blot on the day occurred just before half time, when Leo went down heavily on his shoulder resulting in a broken collar bone in two places. This was a real shame for Leo and his parents and the team. The boys managed to hang onto their 1 try lead winning that game and going on to record another 4-0 win against Watford and a 3-1 win against a very good Kingshott school. They qualified for the semi final, played on the Allianz park pitch, during the half time of the Wasp v Saries legends game. A draw would be good enough to progress, due to a far superior try count in the pool games. Both teams were very nervous and Manor never really got anything going but their defence was more than capable of handling anything Danbury could throw at them. It ended scoreless and the boys march in to the final, to meet Sudbury knowing again a draw would be enough to make them champions. Both teams were again really nervous playing in front of a full house at Allianz park, but they still managed to pack more attacking play into their 10min game than both Saries and Wasps managed in 40 mins!! Sudbury managed to mount period of pressure which resulted in them scoring a close range try. Manor fought back and came close with two good runs from Maxwell, but unfortunately couldn't finish off the opportunities and they went down by the one score.

The boys were very disappointed, but both the coaches and parents were incredibly proud of the effort the boys had all put in. We could not pick a player of the day as all the boys played to the best of their abilities.

http://www.premiershiprugby.com/community/programmes/lrpc/29234.php#.UmYmO2t5mK0

A special thanks must also go to Thierry who's company Design Studio sponsored the team for the day, paying for the entry for the team. The day was certainly a day which the boys will remember for the rest of their rugby careers. They did the club, parents and themselves proud.

UTM

Squad:
Leo, Maxwell, Cormac, Eoin, Cian, George, Thomas, Morgan, Harry, Haiden, Matthew, Tom, Luca, Finn C, Bertie, Reed, Jamie, Finn M.