County hope to beat weather
By Coventry Telegraph
January 25 2008
The RFU National Under-20 Championship makes a belated start in the Midlands on Sunday when Warwickshire entertain North Midlands at Broadstreet. Two games in the region have already fallen victim to the wet weather, but Warwickshire and North Midlands hope to beat the conditions for a game that will see the visitors making the short trip as firm favourites.
A number of the players involved in Sunday's game have already met twice at Under-19 level where North Midlands comortably retained the historic Sable's Head Trophy with victories in both legs at Broadstreet and Droitwich.
But Warwickshire, whose squad includes former Midlands Under-18 wing Jeff Gregson (Hartpury College and Barkers Butts) are reading little into the pre-Christmas games.
"Whoever wins the Sable's Head tends to lose in the Under-20 Championship," said match secretary Garry Watts. "We have a very different squad to the one that played in the Under-19 games.
"We had a warm-up game against Warwick University last Sunday when we lost narrowly to a much older side, but we are going into the championship virtually at full strength."
Traditionally two sides from each division have progressed to the national quarter-finals with the Midlands represented by their two group winners, but this season a Midlands final will be played to produce a winner to go forward to the national semi-finals in May.