This Saturday our U12's are participating in the Land Rover Cup - a mini's festival accessible to us through our Community Relationship with Harlequins.

Last year we entered teams into both the U11's & U12's tournaments with our very own Thomas Pugh winning the coveted Land Rover MVP award for his age group. Not only did Thomas win this but he was also invited by Premiership Rugby back in August to represent Harlequins for the Aviva Premiership kick off event with Captains of all club sides present (& even Dave got in on the act as his chaperone!).

Please see below Dave's account of the day and best of luck to our U12's this Saturday.

Best regards,
Sam Elliott
TRFC Quins Community Liaison

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TRFC U11 were nominated by Land Rover, after competing at a recent Land Rover rugby festival, to be one of two local teams to represent Harlequins at the Aviva Premiership final at the end of May. The day started out with a meet up outside Twickenham Stadium and the discussion was either about Wasps v Chiefs or Range Rover or Discovery.

Thoughts of cars soon disappeared as all the teams attending were ushered into one of the function rooms inside the South Stand at HQ. After our briefing on safety and running order for the day, the first order of business was Land Rover Most Valuable Player [MVP] awards – presented by none other than Jason Robinson. Jaws dropped as one of our lads asked one of the TRFC chaperones – “who is Jason Robinson ?” – a brief response followed, explaining Jason’s nickname ‘Billy Whizz’ and that he was/is a legend. However, as part of his introduction, Jason credentials were shared with the audience. Each team had an MVP and they were called up one at a time by premiership club, alphabetically. Harlequins was not too far down the order so it wasn’t long before THOMAS PUGH got called up on stage to receive his MVP accolade.

Thomas had his first dealings with the press as he was interviewed by a journalist:

“It was great to be here at Twickenham, I’d been looking forward to this day for a long time” said Thomas. “It was really good to be here with my team-mates, I’ve been playing rugby at Teddington since U5’s. I’m very happy I’ve been able to share this day with my friends”

The boys then moved outside onto the hallowed HQ turf for a photo shot with Billy Whizz, both the official versions, the obligatory selfies and then for a team shot in the South East Corner.

The sensory overload continued once we’d taken our seats for the match. The 1st half was a absolute corker, being too close to call and 15 minutes before half time, duty called. Our lads had to leave their seats to get ready to take part in the parade around the pitch at half time. Our boys got a huge buzz from being involved especially the cheers from the crowds and seeing themselves on the big screens.

The match concluded with a close win for Exeter after extra time. The boys had a great time so a big THANK YOU to Harlequins, Land Rover @LandRoverRugby #wedealinreal and Twickenham Stadium for making the day so special.