THE leading teams of the Malvern Hills District tag-rugby mini leagues met at Malvern RFC last week to compete for a place in the Worcestershire Youth Games to be held at Droitwich Leisure Centre this Sunday.

Broadheath CE Primary School and Great Malvern Primary School, the two unbeaten winners of the Tenbury and Malvern Mini League zones were joined by the current leader of the Upton zone, Upton CE Primary School for the play-off's, with a team from St Joseph's RC Primary School who qualified as the highest scoring runners-up from across the district.

Working as closely as possible to the rules of the Youth Games, the rugby coaches from Malvern RFC refereed each game making sure that the seven-a-side teams were made up of Year 6 (Under 11) pupils with three girls and boys on the field at any one time. As expected the "round robin" matches were of a very high standard and the final result proved once again that the under-dogs in any competition should never be underestimated.

In the first round matches, Broadheath encountered the St Joseph's team who blitzed the previously unbeaten Tenbury zone champions by 6 tries to 2. On the adjoining pitch, the dazzling speed and pace of Gt. Malvern overcame the challenge of a competent Upton side by 9-4.

Unfortunately this was Gt. Malvern's best result of the day. In their next game against Broadheath, the Gt. Malvern team played well below their best, only attaining a 7-7 draw after a remarkable fight back when they were trailing by two tries with only 90 seconds of the game to go. Nevertheless, St Joseph's marched-on with a decisive 8-4 win over Upton.

This meant that St Joseph's only needed to draw against local rivals Gt. Malvern to ensure that they could become the official Malvern Hills Year 6 mixed-tag representatives.

In their final round, Broadheath won a thrilling 10-9 encounter with Upton scoring a dramatic match-winning try in the final seconds of the game after Upton had dominated the most of the game with some excellent close support play and strong individual running.

However, the result of this match counted for naught as the young pretenders from St Joseph's stole the prize-of-the-day from the rest, with a hard-earned 5-3 win over Gt. Malvern.

The St Joseph's Year 6 tag-rugby team will join the Year 7/8 girl's tag-rugby squad from Hanley Castle High School and other Malvern Hills based youth sports teams at the Worcestershire Youth Games at Droitwich Leisure Centre this Sunday.

Transport has been arranged for all competitors and team managers. The meeting point is Safeway car park off Townsend Way, Malvern at 8.30am and returning at approximately 5.30pm.

For further details, contact Avril Irish, the Sports Development Officer for Malvern Hills District Council on 01684 892700.