Having topped their pool undefeated two week’s before after beating Hammersmith & Fulham 7-6 at King’s House, the boys took to the field looking to end the season with some silverware.

After a slow and tentative start against some big and powerful boys from Guildford, the young Scots lost an early score to go one down.

1-0

But despite some nervous play and a South African referee who was keen to stamp his authority on the game early on, or imposing inside centre Teo powered through the defensive line to even things up

1-1 Teo

But some tentative tackling gave Guildford another shot and their quick backs strolled through to go ahead.

2-1

The game was swinging wildly now with a few mistakes picked up by the conscientious ref until Jasper ducked, dived and drove his way over the line.

2-2 Jasper

We then had a period of play where we were struggling to stay in the game and conceded to soft tried to let Guildford put some daylight between the teams for the first time.

3-2 x

4-2 x

But one thing the young Scots have plenty of is courage and they stared to get more of a foothold in the game and went on to produce a strong surge of play resulting in two tries from Teo and Jasper helping us get to half time even stevens.

4-3 Teo

4-4 Jasper

Half time

After the break and having made two changes, our strategy of getting the ball to Daniel started to pay off with several strong runs resulting in a great score to put the Scots front for the first time.

4-5 Daniel F

But one thing about playing in a final is that the opposition are there for a reason and Guildford showed why they also finished top of their pool undefeated by playing some inspired rugby to score a series of tries that looked to have finished off Scottish for the last time this season.  A valiant and brave game and season had come to an end.

5-5

6-5

7-5

But from what felt like nowhere, the London Scottish boys seemed to relax a bit and started playing with flair, ambition and strength putting relentless pressure on Guildford’s defence.  Ball in hand and red lion on their chests, the Scottish boys pulled the game level again right as the game clock ran to a close.

7-6 Daniel F

7-7 Daniel F

It was at this point that the referee asked Guildford the competitions regs on a drawn match and Guildford insisted on playing for a winner.  The referee then announced that the next play would indeed be the very last play irrespective of score.  At the same time, he produced an actual yellow card and sin binned one of their players for foul play and it was at this moment in time, only a few steps from the club’s historic war memorial, that the young Scots pulled off a series of phases from side to side that resulted in our dynamic prop Szymon crashing over the line to win the game … and see London Scottish lift the trophy

7-8 Szymon

Full-time!

The Under 13s squad is made up on 23 boys from the following schools:

Cardinal Vaughan Memorial

Hampton School

London Oratory School

The Kingston Academy

Tiffin Boys

Turing School

The Under 13 now wrap up their season with a short end of season tour to Bath (22-23 March) playing a triangular tournament against Oldfield Old Boys and Keynsham followed by the Premiership match at the Rec between Bath and Gloucester.