by James Taylor
Hornsea School and Language College rugby coach Shaun Leaf hailed his history-making “golden generation” ahead of the RFU Continental Tyres Schools U15 Vase quarter-final.
The Yorkshire-based school’s reward for beating Scarisbrick Hall School 29-15 in the last round is a trip to Norfolk to face Gresham’s School.
Leaf praised his side’s historic achievement ahead of this week’s crucial game.
He said: “We’ve entered this competition five times over the past 30 or 40 years and never got this far, so we’re really proud of what we’ve achieved with this group of lads and the lads buying into training sessions and doing extra sessions.
“We’ve got a fantastic set of lads that listen and play outside of school quite regularly together.
“There’s a willingness to put their hand up and train and come in to do extra things. We’ve had match analysis sessions at dinner times and the after-school clubs have been well attended.
“They’re a really close-knit tight group that work hard for each other, put their bodies on the line and it makes a difference when coaching the group. They’re like sponges in what they can acknowledge.
“We’re blessed with this year group, it’s probably our golden generation of rugby players.
“Our journey so far this year has been amazing.”
The RFU Continental Tyres Vase is foundational to age-grade rugby in England, enabling students from across the country to compete against one another and against the best the game has to offer at schoolboy level.
Hornsea will make the 150-mile journey to Norfolk on Wednesday afternoon ahead of Thursday’s afternoon kick-off against Gresham’s, who beat Pate’s Grammar School 17-12 in the last round.
The Yorkshire outfit have competed across the country in various competitions, including last year’s Rosslyn Park National 7s in London – the world’s largest school rugby tournament.
Leaf added: “We’re going to take a steady drive down there. We’ve got an evening meal, then look at some video analysis.
“Going into the unknown, we don’t know much about them, so it’s really difficult, very much concentrate on what we can control, what we can do, what we’re good at.
“The next morning we’ve got breakfast at the youth hostel, then we’ll probably have a steady walk around Norfolk.
“We’re not far from the coastline, so we’ll probably go for a walk towards the beach and then make our way to Gresham’s for about 12 o’clock, get ready and then game on.
“We’ve been across the country, and it builds togetherness, knowing each other inside and out.
“They’re a real tight group and they work hard for each other, so the big thing for us being on different trips helps form that close bond, brotherhood.”
The Continental Tyres Schools Cup is an important part of the age-grade rugby landscape in England, with schools’ rugby often where players fall in love with the game for the first time.
For more information, visit the Continental Tyres Schools Cup section of the England Rugby website at englandrugby-schools.com.