Plymouth College 12, Tiffin School 5
Plymouth College First XV displayed great grit and determination to overcome quality opponents and atrocious conditions on the way to booking a place in the last 4 of a competition that originally had over 240 teams vying for a place in the Twickenham final.
In relentless rain and on a heavy wet pitch, scoring was always going to be difficult and the deadlock wasn't lifted until late in the first half when Oliver Demaine completed a multi phase move of short and direct play by going over in the right hand corner. Ed Neeves was unable to add the extras. This proved the only scoring incident of a first half in which Plymouth managed the conditions and territory successfully to keep their line intact.
In the second half, though, Tiffin School capitalised on a succession of Plymouth errors to cross the line and level the scores. Plymouth suffered an ironic drought of possession for a sustained period, but the defence was to the fore, denying Tiffin territory and causing them to turn over possession. With 5 minutes remaining, Plymouth launched a Herculean assault on their opponent's line, retained multiple phases of possession, which resulted in young lock, Paul Hamber, crashing over for the decisive score. Neeves slotted a testing conversion. At 12-5, Plymouth appeared to have done enough, but their opponents had other ideas and examined Plymouth's defensive resilience once more, but to no avail. The whistle finally came and Plymouth can now look forward to a semi-final against The Yarm School from the North East.
Plymouth played with great tenacity and both the midfield and the fringe tackling effort were immense. Number 8, Jacob Kingscott and Prop, Emil Agobiani, were always to the fore, but this result typified the team's collective spirit and every player held their hand up in denying their opponents........ The journey continues!
The semi-final takes place at Broad Street, Coventry, on 3rd March.
