Express & Star

Wolves celebrate cup success

Young rugby stars celebrated the conclusion of a successful season after being presented with the Stafford Cup.

Published

Wolverhampton's rising stars were all smiles on Sunday during their annual presentation evening.

The under 13s were particularly pleased with their campaign having beaten all in their path to land the cup.

Following a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Burntwood in the semi-finals of two tries to one, which is how junior rugby is scored without any conversions, they rolled over Trentham in the final at Lichfield's home ground 12-4 to seal the win.

Anthony Holt, whose son George played second row for Wolverhampton Rugby Club in the cup competition, said: "They had to beat a few teams to make the final.

"In the semis they were up against Burntwood, in what was a hard-fought victory at our home ground of Castlecroft.

"In the final a couple of weeks later they all played really well against Trentham to win the cup. There were 13 players each side but it was a 17-player squad."

At under 13 level, there are no league games, which means matches are played on a friendly basis, but the cup is different as teams are knocked out of the competition during each round.

Anthony said: "They will be back to defend their title next season but now there is a summer break before the teams return in September for the new season.

"Some of the lads have been playing together for a long time and they have beaten teams like Stoke during the season.

"About 10 of them have played with each other for the last four years, which has helped.

"The club is somewhere they can progress too as it has teams from mini rugby all the way up to the seniors."