Harpenden U11s to be presented to sell-out Twickenham crowd

RUGBY UNION: THIS season saw Harpenden U11s win the Saracens Land Rover Premiership Rugby Cup, and to celebrate the win the team has been invited to represent their region in a special ‘Parade of Champions’ at the home of England Rugby – Twickenham Stadium. This unique opportunity will see the youngsters attend the Aviva Premiership Rugby Final between Leicester Tigers and Saracens at Twickenham on Saturday and be presented to a sell-out crowd.

Harpenden won this once in a lifetime opportunity in April when the team took part in a series of games which concluded in an exciting final against a strong outfit from Beaconsfield. Participating players at the festival also had the opportunity to meet their rugby heroes Derrick Hougaard, Deon Carstens and Alex Brown who took time out of their busy schedules to watch the young teams as well as offer coaching advice between games. The Land Rover Premiership Rugby Cup is a grass roots initiative run in conjunction with Premiership Rugby and Land Rover, Official Vehicle of both Premiership Rugby and England Rugby.

The teams will be celebrating their hard-earned victories at Twickenham Stadium on Saturday where they will get to see Leicester Tigers and Saracens battle it out in the final. The excited young rugby players will parade around the pitch at half time in front of a crowd of 82,000 rugby fans.

The captain of the team, Andre Michels, enjoyed playing in the festival and is looking forward to going to Twickenham, “I had a really fun day at the Land Rover Premiership Rugby Cup, it was great to play with my rugby team and we were very happy to win. I am really looking forward to going to Twickenham and can’t wait to see the Aviva Premiership Rugby Final; I am particularly excited about parading around the pitch at half time!”

Land Rover ambassador and England rugby star Ben Youngs commented on what a special day this will be for the future stars of the game, “It’s great to see so much enthusiasm and enjoyment for the game and it’s brilliant that tournaments like the Land Rover Premiership Rugby Cup exist to help young players develop their skills and competitive nature. Twickenham is a special place to be for any player, I hope it’s something they enjoy and the enormity of the occasion will inspire these players to go on to have further success.”