Topsy fires Dartford to victory

Topsy Ojo scored a hat-trick of tries as Dartford Grammar brought Torquay Boys' progress to a shuddering halt in the Daily Mail U18 Vasequarter-finals.

Torquay had had only 72 hours rest since winningcomfortable at Yeovil and the long trip to Kent certainly took something out of them. But they had no-one to beat Dartford lock Des Hanson in the line-out or anyone to counter Topsy, whose 27 tries form full back havepropelled him into the London and South East squad.

His first against Torquay was made by inside centre Daniel Gower's magnificent flat pass, following good work by his teammmates, punching off a succession of rucks. Gower sent Topsy steaming in for the touchdown and he added his second before half time when he finished off a double dummyfrom fly half Mick Short. With Gower putting over a penalty, Dartford led 13-0 at the break before Topsy completed his treble in style.

Having pickedup the ball in his 22, he raced down the left touchline, slammed on thebrakes to avoid three tacklers and then switched again to avoid theopposition before chipping ahaead and winning the race for the touchdown.

Gower converted and added another penalty to make the score 23-0 and sendDartford through to their first semi-final at Castlecroft on March 3against the winners of Solihull 6th Form College and Bolton.

'When we lost to Cranbrook in the second round of the main competition, wewere suffering an injury crisis,' revealed coach David Morris. 'The Torquaygame was the first time we had everybody available and we've run into a bitof form at the right time.'