King's fall agonisingly short

The scene at the end of an epic Daily Mail Under 18 Cup battle betweenOakham and King's Worcester said it all. Yelps of delight and a collectivesigh of relief from Oakham, 17-15 winners, while the majority of the King'splayers slumped to the ground after their wonderful second half comebackran out of time.

If anyone was going to score in those tense last fewminutes, it was King's but Ross Laidlaw could not manage to convert apenalty in the swirling wind from just inside half way and his lastdesperate drop kick drifted wide too. With hindsight, this clever andinspirational fly half, one of six England triallists playing in the game,may well think he should have provided his three-quarters with moreammunition.

After all, no others had cut the Oakham defence to ribbons asthey did in seven spectacular minutes just after half time, when they cutthe deficit to two points after trailing 17-0 and looking down and out.

Something had to give in this sixth round game since both teams wereunbeaten and there was nothing to choose between the teams in the first 20minutes. But once Oakham's hard-driving and well drilled pack stoppedgiving away their own ball - down to a mixture of over-anxiousness and agreasy ball - they took the game by the scruff of the neck and gave theKing's pack a torrid time for the rest of the half.

Oakham have some powerful runners outside too and after centre Tom Gregorymissed a 40m penalty in front of the posts, Oakham struck from the restart,the ball passing through four pairs of hands and going wide from a ruck forcentre Mark Matthews, son of Leicester Tigers president David Matthews, topower over. Gregory did the honours this time to make it 7-0.

Oakham love to put teams under pressure in their own Hellfire Corner andKing's were unable to defend it twice within a matter of minutes. Gregory'spenalty put Oakham within 10 metres of the line and they caught and droveover from the line-out with Joe Wheeler, son of Tigers chief executivePeter Wheeler, coming up with the ball. Oakham were in full flow and weredenied another try by the winger's foot in touch. But they stole theline-out and drove over again. Wheeler was given the try but King's werenot happy bunnies, believing the referee had made the wrong decision. Thatscore, which established a 17-0 half time lead, was to prove crucial in theend.