Schools Rugby: Lancaster into semis

Lancaster RGS completed the good job they had started so well a week earlier by beating Northampton School for Boys 24-6 at neutral Castlecroft to reach the Daily Mail U18 Cup semi-finals.

The Lancashire boys were leading 10-0 at Northampton the previous week when the game was engulfed by the big blizzard, leading to this rare replay in which they had too much firepower for the young NSB side, most of whom will live to fight another day in the Cup next season.

Left winger Selorm Kuadey had already given NSB a taste of his pace, power and elusiveness by running around the defensive cover to score under the posts in the first game. He was put away again to cancel out NSB's early penalty and after half time, with the score at 10-6, settled the game with one of the outstanding tries of this season's competition.

He collected a kick through by NSB in his own half burst through the chasing players and tihen beat five defenders before scoring under the posts.

No 8 Laurence Boot had scored the second Lancaster try and scrum half Aaron Coldwell finshed off an impressive evening's work by winning the foot race after a kick and chase.

Lancaster now face Colston's at Castlecroft on March 6, with Campion of Hornchurch awaiting the winners of next Wednesday's quarter-final between Barnard Castle and King Edward's, Birmingham.

NSB"s disappointment has been tempered by their Under 15s reaching the semi-finals on March 13 and they will play Sherborne who have made it at the first attempt. But the passage was not easy for their usuallly free-scoring team. King's College School, Wimbledon put them under more pressure than any team this season and enjoyed the majority of possession and territory, including a ten-minute spell on the home line.

In fact, the winning score, four minutes from time, came from a line-out near the Sherborne line. One of their locks kicked the ball clear which clipped a KCS player to put Sherborne on-side. They trapped the KCS winger as he collected the ball to gain possession and quickly sent the ball wide for full back Jamie Smibert to to race over for a try, converted by Charlie Esson.