Rosslyn Park winners
The first day sees the group matches and the beginning of the knockout phase. King's confidently brushed aside Marlborough, Aylesbury, Plymouth College and Giggleswick, amassing 181 points in the process, and conceding only 22. The day ended with a 33-12 victory over Cranleigh in the play-offs.
Getting through to the second day is an achievement in itself against the top rugby playing schools in the country, and King's started in confident fashion, beating Cheltenham College 38-5 in the group winners' knockout. The quarter-final against Sevenoaks saw a fine performance from Will McKegney, and a very satisfying 33-19 victory. Tonbridge in the semi-finals proved an extremely tough proposition, but a strong team performance, led by Ross Turner with three tries, saw us home 26-19.
A tense and exciting final saw Wellington College, Berkshire take a 14-0 lead, drawing us into an unfamiliar contact orientated game. We secured a penalty though, and unleashed some devastating attacking play, Quinton Taylor crossing to put us back in the game 14-5 at half-time. Our defence, which had been outstanding all tournament, pressed Wellington hard, and forced a number of infringements at the breakdown. Ross Turner crossed the line with great determination to make it 14-10, then Wellington committed one too many handling errors in the ruck, and lost a player to the sin-bin.
From the resulting penalty, some patient build-up play and quality handling sent Ed Dawson over to give us a 15-14 lead - Tom Halliday converted, and we held out for the last minute to record a thoroughly deserved 17-14 win. The two days saw King's pupils at their very best. Passionate, disciplined, with a great team work ethic, the final whistle was one of those moments they will never forget for the rest of their lives.