Action pictures from the Calday Grange Grammar School v Langley Park School for Boys Under-15 Vase Final at Twickenham
Langley Park School for Boys . . . . . 8
Calday Grange Grammar School . . . 7
CALDAY Grange Grammar School's bid to lift the Daily Mail Schools' Under-15 Vase ended in heartache at Twickenham today (Wednesday, April 2).
Opponents Langley Park School for Boys became the first team to regain the Under-15 Vase with a dramatic added time penalty.
Fly-half Ben Hollister landed the winning kick eight minutes into added time for Langley Park - winners of the Under-15 Vase in 2006 - after Calday Grange's backs went offside at a scrum on their 22.
The backs were keen to get at Hollister, who was in the process of his second dropped goal attempt in an exciting last few minutes, but it cost them the decisive penalty - and the trophy.
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From the middle of the 22, Hollister lined up his right-foot shot at the posts and never looked like missing.
Hollister had spent the last three weeks getting fit from a twisted knee - an injury which forced him off during the semi-final against Woodlands School and left the decisive kick on that occasion to No 8 James Parkinson for Langley Park, from Beckenham, Kent, to win a sudden death' place kicking shoot-out.
No-one was going to deny Hollister the glory this time around - although his moment had appeared to have passed when his first dropped goal attempt a minute into added time, though well struck, hit the left hand post.
At that stage, Calday Grange were holding on to a 7-5 lead in a final which got better as time went on.
In a scoreless first-half the press defence of Langley Park, with scrum half B.J. Tarbie and centre George Hixson prominent with their tough tackling, stemmed Calday Grange's attacks at source and forced them into a kicking game.
Calday Grange captain Ben Sparke had a couple of penalty shots at goal which went wide and his centre partner, Jack Rowland, did well to ankle tap the Langley Park right wing, Will Jafrato, after initially being handed off.
Jafrato continued to see a lot of ball in the second-half but he was well marshalled by Calday Grange and it was the other Langley Park wing, Dan Hamilton, who made the scoring breakthrough.
A nicely worked single-phase move from a scrum saw full-back Mark Longhurst make a dashing break, left to right. Longhurst burst through the first-up tackle and passed outside for the pacy Hamilton to run it in.
Calday Grange came back with a converted try to take the lead. Tarbie got caught in possession behind a scrum in his 22, Calday Grange won a line-out and mauled it on through their forwards before Matt Ross made a timely departure from his wing to run clear from a ruck.
Sparke's conversion made it 7-5 to Calday Grange, but Hollister's added time fun was still to come, much to the delight of Langley Park's highly vocal support.
"The first time I practised kicking in the three weeks since the semi-final was this morning before the game," said a delighted Hollister.
"For the penalty I just tried to treat it as any other day - just a normal kick in a normal game."
Langley Park coach Simon Harriss said: "We always try to make it entertaining. I can't explain why we haven't been able to close our matches out easily. Maybe it's something to do with the good side we have played against.
"Calday Grange made it difficult for us with their kicking game. "
"It's been an unbelievable day, the boys have worked so hard. People have written us off as a hit-and-miss side but at the end of a long season we were able to play the type of rugby we wanted."
Harriss hailed the contribution since Christmas of specialist skills coach Michael Hooke, while Langley Park captain Jacob Burr was busy thanking the team-mate who picked up his winner's medal for him.
"I didn't know what to do when I got up in front of the Royal Box and I forgot to pick up my medal," said Burr. "We came back really well and responded to everything Calday Grange did. Every one of our players ran themselves into the ground."
Calday Grange coach Paul Miller said: "I am still a very proud coach, very proud of my players."
He added: "Even when we went 5-0 down, I had no concerns about the result. Langley Park played incredibly well and while I am gutted about the way we lost we have never been worked that hard before.
"We had some chances today - not many - and it was just little things that didn't break for us.
"We were gutted to lose to what we thought was a borderline call and that is why so many of our boys are distraught.
"Several of our boys are close to divisional and England standard and it's just up to them how they go on from here."
Teams:-
Calday Grange Grammar School: N. Parsonage; M. Ross, B. Sparke (capt), J. Rowland, J. Collins; A. Eagles, B. Jones; J. Lynch, J. Bryson, M. Hanson, F. Smale, B. Hills, J. Porter, R. Eden, J. Gunner. Replacements: B. Brooks, N. Griffiths, T. Roberts, V. Giang, G. Bamforth, N. Morley, R. Williams.
Try: Ross; Conversion: Sparke.
Langley Park School for Boys: M. Longhurst; W. Jafrato, M. Hankin, G. Hixson, D. Hamilton; B. Hollister, B.J. Tarbie; F. Baldwin, J. Hughes, J. Jones, M. Phillips, R. O'Callaghan, J. Burr (capt), H. Peddle, J. Parkinson. Replacements: T. Pelling, R. O'Mahoney, M. Takpak, H. Puckle, S. Wheeler, P. St Clair, S. Sultan.
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