Well here we are at Twickenham, the day had finally arrived when six coaches left Haslams 'The home of Derby Rugby' to travel to Twickenham, the home of England Rugby !!! 

What a fantastic day, Derby had three teams here  in the climax stages of the Prudential Minis National Cup which had been organised by Gullivers Sports.

Today saw us all at Haslams for 5:30am and by 5:45am we were on our way down to Twickenham.

I'm hoping to get some 'match comments' from the coaches from each of the Derby sides which I'll include within this page when I receive them but very briefly the U9's were the first to play in their semi finals game against Bedford. An exciting game followed as both teams set their stalls out and attacked and tackled each other all over the pitch. In the end Bedford managed to run in two tries to book their place into the final.

The U10's then followed at 11:20am in their game against Lincoln. This was in fact the Finals for the U10's age group. Yet another great game ensued and at full time the score was level at 00 - 00. Neither side had managed to break through the defence of the other and therefore the trophy was shared.

It was then the turn of the U12's to play in their semi final game against Tring. This was a tough game with both sides attacking each other. Derby stuck firm to their task and tackled anything that came their way. On the stroke of half time Tring managed to score a try and then in the later stages of the secondhalf another one followed as well.   

For all three Derby sides, this was a fantastic and very memorable day, as it was too for all of the travelling Derby supporters. How many friends from school can say that they've played at Twickenham !!!

Roger has written a few words that he'd like to share with you all about the day ........."I wanted to say how moved I was by all the lads and coaches hard work and dedication on the day. Everyone was well behaved and were a real credit to the club and after the lads played the first game they were so upset but they had played really well and had made history by being the first ever Derby team to play at Twickers and they should be very very proud of how well they played, excellent stuff. A big thank you also to all the coaches you are superb, we are lucky to have you all. Thank you to all the supportive parents and friends who came down in such numbers on Sunday, unbelievable, the big haka was for all of you. A couple of special memories for me are seeing so much activity and excitement at 5.30 a.m at the club on Sunday morning on everyone's faces. Secondly, watching young Jake Room warming up on his own on the Twickenham pitch like a seasoned professional, excellent stuff. Thirdly seeing the level of commitment from all the players, some of the tackles were unbelievable but afterwards we blew everyone away by our haka and good sportsmanship.

Finally what a great day for Derby Rugby Club on Sunday, the minis and junior sections are the future of the club and the future looks very very bright. I am very proud to be associated and be involved with such a vibrant, lively and special club, well done everyone." - Roger Milligan

I'm sure that everyone will echo Roger's sentiments and comments.

On this webpage I've included lots of photographs of the day and I hope that I've managed to capture all of the Derby lads of the U9's, U10's and U12's at some point within these photos. There's general photos to the left of the page and match photos further on down the page.

I was fortunate enough to be allowed to continue my photographic role for the England v Barbarians game. As such the RFU gave me permission to be close to the game with the national press photographers and whilst my camera looked somewhat diminutive (hic) when I looked at the size of the lenses that some of these official press guys had, I hope that you'll agree that I've been able to capture some good shots of the England v Barbarians game. They're at the bottom of this page for you to view.

To finish off this mini round up (hic) I'd just like to close with the following comments  ........

Thanks to the lads for putting on tremendous performances in their games and for reaching Twickenham, if you hadn't of made it through to this stage then none of us would have been here today. Thanks also to all of the Derby travelling supporters, a lot came on the coaches but there were others who'd driven down as well. 

Lastly, a very big thankyou to the Derby coaches and to anyone else involved in organising today's trip. I don't think that any other Club were at today's games with three teams !!!  Well done Derby.

Click on any photo to enlarge it.

Brian Leverington