The Midlands and the South West ended their Under-18 Divisional programme with victories this afternoon.

 

The Midlands overcame the North 36-15 at Castlecroft in Wolverhampton while the South West staged a second half fightback to run out 35-12 winners against London & South East at Maidenhead.

 

The results gave both the Midlands and South West two wins and a defeat from their three-match programme which began with the Divisional Festival at Wolverhampton in early January.

 

At Castlecroft the Midlands fielded a changed team from the one that defeated the South West at Bridgwater last month with fly-half Tim Streather (Chase HS, Malvern, Worcester and North Midlands) taking his chance to impress the watching national selectors.

 

Streather, who was promoted to the England training squad after the South West game, scored 16 points which included a first half try, four conversions and a second half penalty.

 

The Midlands' other first-half tries came from winger Jeff Gregson (Woodlands School, Coventry, Barkers' Butts and Warwickshire) and centre Will Bradley (Kings' School, Grantham and NL&D).

 

Replacement full-back Michael Penn (Bromsgrove School and North Midlands) and Charlie Fellows (King's School, Worcester, Worcester and North Midlands) crossed in the second half to improve on the Midlands' 21-5 interval lead.

 

At Maidenhead, London went 5-0 and 12-7 up either side of a try from  winger Vince Lanciano (St Peter's HS, Gloucester and Gloucestershire).

 

But the South West took control in the second half with number eight James Phillips (St Brendans Sixth Form College, Bristol and Gloucestershire) scoring two tries and the others coming from hooker Sam Robson (Ivybridge Community College and Devon) and a long-range interception effort from winger Dan Norton (Hartpury College, Spartans and Gloucestershire).

 

Phillip Chesters (Bishop Wordsworth's School, Salisbury and Dorset & Wiltshire) converted all five tries.

 

Norton has already trained with the England Under-18 squad this season and both Divisional matches were watched by national selectors.