Tewkesbury’s Twickenham dreams continue

Tewkesbury RFC are eager not to let another chance of playing at England’s Rugby HQ go amiss as they look for victory over Castleford RFC in the semi-finals of the EDF Energy Junior Vase on Saturday.

The Gloucestershire side also made it through to the latter stages of the national cup six years ago, only to have their dreams thwarted by Hoylake RFC.

Shaun Everis, Tewkesbury’s No. 8 and a player who was involved in that Hoylake defeat, said: “There are six members of this squad still playing who were involved in that game against Hoylake RFC. That was a gutting defeat and I can still remember the look of devastation on the players faces, realising that they had lost the opportunity to play at Twickenham.

“Certainly that motivates us as we don’t want to lose this opportunity again, but also it reminds us that we can’t think too far ahead and be over confident going into this game.

“Castleford of course are going to be tough opponents. They are second in the league so there’s no doubt this is going to be a close game. All the teams left in at this stage of the tournament are obviously good, but also we know in cup rugby anything can happen.

“In the past we have done our homework on the opposition and that hasn’t always been helpful so we have decided that we should just concentrate on our own game.

“We take pride in our scrummaging; we have a good pack and I think that is a very strong area for us. We also have some fast backs that can do damage and get the advantage for us. Hopefully we will have a good crowd behind us and that will work to our advantage.”

Indeed Tewkesbury RFC has ever reason to be confident going into the semi-final clash against Castleford RFC. The Gloucestershire One side are third in the league and vying for promotion. They have also lost just one home tie in the EDF Energy Junior Vase and that was back in October 2001.

Everis, who has been playing first team rugby at Tewkesbury for 15 years, added: “Things have been going right on the pitch for us this season and there are several reasons for that.

“There was a sad loss for the club at the start of the season after the deaths of Chris and Bram Lane in the floods, so I think a lot of players wanted to come back to the club and make this a good season in memory of them.

“Our new coach Kevin Powerderly has also made a big difference to us. There is also a great atmosphere at the club with lots of work being done on and off the pitch, and a couple of experienced players have also returned and that has helped.”

For Tewkesbury’s opponents, Castleford RFC, they are also enjoying their rugby this season and skipper Chris Willett said: “We’re looking forward to it obviously. We will have our strongest squad available, which is always a positive. We had a very good 57-17 win against fourth-placed Barnsley in the league on Saturday that helped our promotion drive.

“We are second in Yorkshire Three and one of three teams with 17 league wins from 19 matches, but two of the three have yet to play each other, so if we keep winning we should get promotion.

“Obviously we have to keep winning in the league, but there’s no question of us taking our eye off the ball with EDF Energy competition. We’re also still involved in the Yorkshire Silver Trophy, so we’re looking for a possible hat trick of successes.

“The atmosphere in the club at the moment is fantastic and there are people who have been part of the club for a long time who believe that the rugby, the camaraderie and the atmosphere is the best they’ve ever seen.”

Willett, who had a spell with Cleckheaton, has not only contributed 21 tries this season, but also helped to get the senior rugby side functioning to its optimum.

“I try to run the team like a business and that means being as thoroughly prepared as possible before every game,” he said. “We had one of our players watching Tewksbury last weekend, so we have an idea what we can expect. Obviously there are reasons why they have reached the semi-finals and we’ll be paying them every ounce of respect. 

“But being away from home doesn’t worry me because it helps in getting the preparations right. We’re travelling on Friday and we’ll be together which helps to create a special mood. We’ll also have some time in the morning of the game just to throw a ball around and get ourselves ready.

“It will be either the elation of a trip to Twickenham or a long, depressing trip back to Yorkshire. All I want is to make sure that we are in a position to give it our all, as we have done all season. There will be no excuses.”
Ends…

Notes to editors
EDF Energy is supporting rugby from the grassroots to the elite – through the EDF Energy Cup, EDF Energy National Trophy, EDF Energy Intermediate Cup, EDF Energy Senior and Junior Vase. At grassroots, the energy company is introducing 112,000 primary school children to the sport through the EDF Energy National Schools Rugby Programme. Parent company EDF was a sponsor of the IRB Rugby World Cup 2007 and EDF Energy an ITV broadcast sponsor. EDF is also a major partner of European Rugby Cup Ltd, organiser of the Heineken Cup and the European Challenge Cup.