Harlequins have heavily supported Ernest Bevin College over the last four years as part of the Inner London Player Development Programme. The current U15s were the first year group to have Rugby on the curriculum and a comprehensive fixture list to provide them opportunities to play and learn.

The Daily Mail Cup is a national schools competition and each year the top rugby school teams fight to make it to the final rounds of the competition. This year Epsom College have been tipped to emerge from the highly competitive U15 London and South East A group and have beaten some big names to make it to the fourth round including John Fisher in Purley.

After winning the toss Ernest Bevin decided to play down the slope to try and utilise their speed. Cathan Marcell playing on the right wing for Ernest Bevin, was unlucky not to break free after a couple of good runs in the first few minutes, however it was his cover defence which was most impressive stopping his opposite number on more that one occasion from getting past him to score.

Denzel Boatey-Ageyi was also unlucky not to break through the Epsom defence as he went on a couple of runs and was dragged down every time by a number of Epsom defenders. Ernest Bevin defended very well for the first 15 minuets and managed to keep Epsom from scoring until the 18^th minute. Three more tries for Epsom before half term saw them take a 22-0 lead into the break.

With the slope now against them Ernest Bevin put up a good fight and made Epsom work for all their tries and didn't give up. When Ernest Bevin did get the ball they looked dangerous and were able to score one try in the second half which started on the half way line and was finished by Kamal Oke who spotted a gap and accelerated into it, showing good pace to make it all the way to the line.

Stand out performances from Denzel and Cathan were seen by Assistant Academy Coach Jim Evans and have earned them trials with the Surrey and Harlequins School of Rugby later this month.

For more information about the Inner London Player Development Programme please contact Tom Williams, tom.williams@quins.co.uk 07793 282 951.