Plymouth College came up short in their quarter-final of the U18 Daily Mail Cup against Whitgift School, but not before making their illustrious opponents battle hard for their place in the semi-final.
Whitgift's much vaunted centre Elliot Daly opened the scoring, slotting three long range penalties (one a massive 55 metre effort) as a result of Plymouth falling offside repeatedly. However, Plymouth, who are sponsored by chartered surveyors, Monk & Partners, fought back strongly with Henry Slade cutting the deficit with a penalty. Whitgift responded with a well worked try to make the score 14-3 at the break.
The next score needed to come from Plymouth and this proved the case when crackerjack turner no 9, George Stephenson, barrelled over after concerted pressure on the Whitgift line. With the score at 14-10 after Slade added the conversion, the game was now on again, but Plymouth needed to find another gear to secure more scoring success. Whitgift though managed to shut out further Plymouth attacking forays and two scores from distance resulted in Whitgift running out 24-10 winners.
"Although obviously disappointed, the boys should be really proud of their achievements", said Plymouth College Head of Rugby, Richard Edwards. "Their commitment this season has been outstanding and they have taken on some serious opponents to get this far.
"Whitgift, 1200 boys and in possession of Millfieldesque facilities with an £8 million sports centre just completed, are serious players at national level and are the reigning champions. With 300 boys, we are significantly smaller than them and not many schools of our size get this far in the competition. About 600 teams from around the country take part so to get to the last eight is a tremendous achievement."
The season, that has seen the Plymouth College 1st XV win 16 out of 17 competitive matches, win Rugby World's 'Team of the Month' and reach the top 3 in the national schools' rugby league, is not quite over. The Devon Cup final against Kelly College is scheduled to be played on Thursday 17 February at Brickfields, 6 p.m. kick-off.
