Rugby coach at Northampton School for Boys Mark Lee has hailed the school’s “unbelievable” under-18s side and warned they will be heading to Twickenham later this month to win.
The Billing Road school made finals day of the Daily Mail Cup yesterday, after staging an impressive comeback to beat Warwick School 13-10.
NSB had been trailing 10-0 just after half-time.
Speaking this morning, Mr Lee said there were a few sore heads among parents and spoke of his pride in his team.
He said he had yet to start planning for the final, to be played at the home of rugby, and said he was hoping the whole town will get behind the school.
Mr Lee said: “We have a bit of ‘they shall not pass’ mentality and that comes through in the end.
“We didn’t play very well for 50 minutes but for the last quarter of the match we got hold of the game and finished it off really well.”
Yesterday’s win continued what has already been a remarkable time in the competition, which has seen NSB knock-out some of the country’s most prestigious rugby-playing private schools.
They will now take on Dulwich College on March 23 to be crowned national champions.
Mr Lee said: “For me this is like beating South Africa, New Zealand and then Australia in back-to-back games, so it is a huge achievement.
“We have never been to Twickenham before, we have made it to a couple of semi-finals at under-15, and it is just absolutely lovely this morning to have that feeling that we are going to get to go to Twickenham.”
He described the feeling in the changing room after the game as “unbridled joy” and revealed parents, staff and players headed back from Broadstreet Rugby Club, in Coventry, for a post-game celebration at Old Northamptonians last night.
He added: “We are going to go to Twickenham now and give it a bash.
“In one sense we can’t lose now because we have achieved so much this year.
“But at the same time we are not going to just turn up and try to enjoy the day, we are going to go with the intent of playing a game to challenge Dulwich.
“I know the nearer we get it is going to be a case of ‘lets finish the job’.” He added: “There are about 24 or 25 lads, who are part of this team, and when they focus and when they are on their game they are quite a formidable side.”
The Northampton School for Boys team that played yesterday was:
1. Ben Ibrahim 2. Aaron Cort 3. Olly Dancer 4. David O’Rourke 5. Tom Galliano 6. Tom Hammersley 7. Ollie Hartfield 8. Jacob Connor 9. Harry Sanderson 10. Conor Bulivant 11. Julian Fitton- Swan 12. Rotimi Segun 13. Jack Spittle 14. Conor Jeffcoate 15. Ned Buckler.
Replacements: 16. Kurt Jenkins 17. Jacob Martin 18. Will Stanniford 19. Zak Forskitt 20. Cieran Eeles 21. Kieran Isacc 22. Callum Mackay.
 |  |