CREDITON RFC Under 11’s team helped celebrate more than 10 seasons of the Land Rover Premiership Rugby Cup by taking part in an event hosted by Exeter Chiefs on Sunday, October 28. 

The Land Rover Premiership Rugby Cup, a nationwide series of events, has seen more than 82,000 children take part to-date and continues to grow, providing developmental experience for young players to excel in a professionally run environment. 

Last weekend it was Exeter Chiefs’ turn to host their event this season with Exeter Saracens RFC as the venue with 32 teams strutting their stuff across an under-12 and under-11 festival.

And in the under-11s competition Crediton demonstrated plenty of effort and skill but fell just short of earning a trip to the Gallagher Premiership Rugby Final on June 1, where they had the chance to meet a Land Rover rugby ambassador, and join in a Land Rover Premiership Rugby Cup Parade at half-time, plus find out who has won the Junior Land Rover Discovery of The Season award.

But despite seeing that honour go to Saltash, Bertie Johnstone, from Crediton, was still proud of his side’s performances.

“It’s really nice, because you can see loads of other teams and experience playing against them, so the next time you play them you can improve - you can see that they’ve improved, and they can see that you’ve improved,” he said. 

“We did well in the contact area, moved it out to the wing, but sometimes we lost the contact area and stared at the ball, but most of the time we competed well. We scored some good tries and worked hard.

“It was really cool to meet the Chiefs players, because I like seeing matches and watching them play.

“I love playing rugby because you can smash into people and run around as much as you want!”

Players at the festival also had the opportunity to meet Chiefs player Charlie Wright, who took time out of his schedule to watch the young teams as well as offer some coaching tips between games. 

He commented on the importance of grassroots rugby, saying: “rugby at this level is about expressing yourself.

“The competition’s important, but at this level you don’t want to focus too much on the competition; you want to start performing well and recognising that performance, rather than getting a result at the end of it. 

“Everyone should be enjoying themselves, getting to know other people and be building relationships.”

Land Rover has heritage in rugby at all levels; from grassroots to elite, sharing and understanding the values at the heart of the game. Follow @LandRoverRugby .