School profile: Solihull

Solihull 6th Form College opened in 1974 and numbers have grown to 2,200 students drawn from Solihull and south Birmingham. A strong rugby tradition has been built up and two teams play on a Wednesday, with many of theplayers turning out for clubs such as Moseley, Birmingham and Solihull and Old Silhillians at the weekend.

It says much about the enthusiasm of the boysand quality of coaching that the College produces good competitive teams from scratch on a regular basis.It was a big blow to this team that they lost in the Cup at John Cleveland to a late drop goal but the Vase has given the players real focus and the team have steadily improved. The winning draw against a strong RGS Worcester sidewas a wonderful effort and in the quarter-final the team produced high quality rugby in atrocious conditions to beat a determined Bolton side 50-9.

Solihull achieved it without scrum half and leading points scorer James Ireland, who is part of the Wales Youth set-up and he was also absent in the semi-final against Dartford Grammar when Solihull's gutsy effort got them through as the designated away side in a 16-16 draw. Ireland will bemissing for the final but his deputy Alex Stajka has answered the challenge on every occasion.

John Hudson, the former Harlequins and Moseley player, is in charge of rugby and he is helped by the vastly experienced Barrie Corless, who played for England and the Barbarians, Birmingham, Coventry and Moseley. Gareth Taylor, who played in the 1997-8 College side which reached the last eight of theCup and went on to play for England U21s has a valuable input. He is currently semi-pro at Birmingham and Solihull.

ROUTE TO THE FINAL

2nd rnd Friary, Lichfield walk over
3rd rnd Fairfax(a) won 8-3
4th rnd Prince Henry's, Evesham won 32-12
5th rnd RGS Worcester drew 19-19 (won on try count)
qtr-final Bolton (h)won 50-7
semi-final Dartford GS drew 16-16 (won on away rule)