Two Luffa Students land Rover Cup Rugby Winners

Congratulations to Rory Parrett (7Otter) and Oliver Rutter (7Story) who both represented Chichester Rugby Club Under 12s 1sts at the Land Rover Cup, a Premiership Rugby tournament hosted by Harlequins RFC at their training ground in Guildford.

The tournament brought together the best 19 teams in the South East for a one day Cup Competition.

With Rory playing at scrum half and Oliver as a 2nd row forward, Chi won their first two games against Teddington and the much feared Battersea Ironsides with convincing victories. A tougher third match against Worthing proved tougher but again bought a win with Rory scoring a pick and go try from the bottom of a ruck close to the Worthing try line.

With three wins under the belt for Chi, next up were Tonbridge Juddians. With Tonbridge also unbeaten in their three group games, this last match was effectively a knock out game with winners going into the semi final.

After going a try down early on, Chi fought back hard to win by two tries to one and set themselves up for a semi final vs Haywards Heath, a rival we lost to earlier in the year.

With Rory and Oliver both in fine form, Chi fought hard to defend their line again a robust offence, holding out and hitting Haywards on the counter attack to go a try up. Shortly after Rory took a knock to the head which saw him leave the pitch for a head injury assessment. Relentless attack from his teammates in the latter stages led to a second try and jumps for joy and scrum caps thrown into the air as Chi lines themselves up for the final!

As Chi’s opposition Sutton & Epsom walked out onto the pitch for the final, you could have been forgiven for thinking their players were under 16s - they were a big and clearly physical team. With Rory back on the pitch and Oliver unrelenting at the ruck, Chi fought admirably in a tight final which was 0-0 until the last minute. Chi made drive after drive for the opposition line with S&E defending admirably until they finally succumbed to the onslaught with Chi going over for a winning try with the last play of the game!

The boys were absolutely elated, as were the parents and coaching team - a wonderful end to a fantastic day for 16 lads from five different schools who have been playing together every Sunday for six years in the case of some.

As winners, Oliver and Rory got to have their photos taken with the Premiership Trophy and won tickets for them and the rest of their team to attend the Premiership Final at Twickenham in June.

It was a proud moment for both Oliver and Rory who have performed well across the season to achieve selection for the 1st 16 from a squad of 35 players.

More about the event can be found by clicking on the link below
https://www.premiershiprugby.com/community/defender-premiership-rugby-cup