Hornets Under-17s reached the South West regional final of the National Cup.

Hornets 22 pts

Bournemouth 0 pts

HORNETS Under-17s reached the South West regional final of the National Cup after seeing off the challenge of Bournemouth at The Nest.

After a blistering opening 15 minutes, Hornets found themselves 12-0 up. Scrum-half Conor Littlewood opened Hornets’ account with a long run to the line after a training ground move went to plan and was converted by Alex Colborne.

Straight from the kick-off, prop Ashley Challenger powered over from close range following a sweeping attack involving some great work from Kieran Ward and Sam Lewis. The rest of the half deteriorated in to a dull affair.

The second half followed suit with more lazy play up front and poor decision making behind. However, in between the mistakes, penalties and scrums, centre Sam Balkham managed to grab himself a brace of tries.

His first came after a sublime handling move from the backs put him through a hole and he outpaced the cover defence to touch down. His second came after a break by man of the match Colborne and was well supported by Balkham, who was handed an easy run in by his No 8 to complete the scoring at 22-0.

Hornets will be hoping they can step up their game as they look forward to taking on the winner of Redruth v Longlevens at Cleve on March 24.