Under 15s Reach Daily Mail Cup Final
15 Mar 2007
The Vase semi-finals were overshadowed by a neck injury to Solihull’s James Meredith, which required him being airlifted to hospital as a precaution.
Solihull led Bishop Wordsworth’s 13 -12 at the time and hung on without him to win. The good news was that the prop was allowed home after doctors found no real damage and is expected to line up in the final.
Solihull coach Paul Jackson was a relieved man on all counts. The Meredith incident was one of the most worrying he had experienced but he had nothing but praise for the medical staff at Castlecroft.
"We couldn't have asked for better care or professionalism from the doctor and physio," said Jackson. "You cannot take any chances with injuries to the neck. Luckily, it was only a muscle spasm, caused when he hit the deck and James has recovered and will be in the starting XV at Twickenham."
When the game restarted with Solihull 13-12 ahead, Jackson experienced the most anxious 13 and a half minutes of his life as the opposition threw everything at his boys.
"Our defence was superb," he said, "and so disciplined because we could easily have conceded a penalty. The key moment was when their marvellous fly half spurned an overlap and tried to go under the posts himself.
"We stopped him and our flanker Alex Crichton made a match-saving contribution by coming up with the ball. I don't know if I can stand it, if the game at Twickenham is as tense!"
Solihull now meet Yorkshire’s Woodhouse Grove, who rampaged to a 32-10 win over Felsted, led by their two mop-haired back row forwards Tom Moody and Joe Harris.
DAILY MAIL U15 VASE – semi-finals
BISHOP WORDSWORTH 12 (T: Heathcote, Evans. C: Heathcote) SOLIHULL 13 (T: Kirke, Trueman. P: Kirke). (ht: 12-5)
FELSTED 10 (T: Triggs, Dennis) WOODHOUSE GROVE 32 (Hatfield, Fairbank, Harris, Young, Moody 2. C: Harris. (ht: 5-20)
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