East seniors miss out on final by narrowest margin

East seniors won their game against East Midlands today - but missed out on the final by only points difference, and will have to play their neighbours again in two weeks time (31st March)in a third place playoff at Wasps. The seniors were left to rue a last minute try conceeded to South East in an opening game they had othewise dominated - or maybe the luck of a draw that saw South take on two of the eventual bottom four teams and West Midlands three of the bottom five, while East had had to play (discounting themselves) two of the top four.

The final Senior table was as follows:

TEAM	P	W	D	L	F	A	DIF	BP	PTS
WEST MIDLANDS	3	3	0	0	96	5	91	1	16
SOUTH	3	2	1	0	43	20	23	0	13
EAST	3	2	0	1	43	31	12	2	13
EAST MIDLANDS	3	2	0	1	27	23	4	1	12
SOUTH EAST	3	2	0	1	34	36	2	0	11
NORTH WEST	3	1	0	2	39	39	0	2	9
THAMES VALLEY	3	0	2	1	34	41	-7	1	8
YORKSHIRE	3	1	0	2	18	41	-23	1	8
SOUTH WEST	3	0	1	2	15	82	-67	1	6
NORTH EAST	3	0	0	3	36	67	-29	2	5

It is proposed that from next year the new U18 championship will be based in the senior model instead of the Sun Alliance festival at Rugby School, which it is suggested will become an U15-only affair.

However, this year the juniors continue with a pattern of warm-up games leading to the final festival. Today the first warm-ups saw the U14s came back from conceeding an early try to beat East Midlands 25-15, while the U17s game was abandoned in the second half with East Midlands leading 19-5 when an unseasonal hail and snow strom turned the ground into something that looked like the front of a Christmas card.