Hornets Under-17s reached the final of the National Cup after beating Sevenoaks at Henley-on-Thames.

Hornets Under-17s 32 pts

Sevenoaks 14 pts

HORNETS Under-17s reached the final of the National Cup after beating Sevenoaks at Henley-on-Thames.

Sevenoaks made a blistering start, but could not breach Hornets’ well-organised defence. However, they won two penalties, but both kicks hit the post and were eventually cleared.

Scrum-half Conor Littlewood made a huge momentum changing tackle that saw the ball spilled and Hornets had chance to attack for the first time. Hornets worked their way upfield until Andrew Wheller beat the last defender and offloaded to superb captain Kieran Ward to dive over, with Alex Colborne adding the extras.

Ben Reseigh added a second try for Hornets in his first full game back from injury when he worked hard to support an attack and got his reward when he received an inside pass to dive over.

Hornets were gaining the upper hand and when Sam Balkham put Wheller through a hole in the Sevenoaks defence, the outstanding full-back scored his first try of the day to put Hornets 17 points up.

Sevenoaks hit back with a try by their brilliant No 8 Aaron Robertson who, scored a fine try at the posts that was converted to make it 17-7 at the break.

The second half saw Hornets up the speed of the game they were rucking even quicker than the first half and moving the ball into space.

Hornets hit Sevenoaks with a three-try blitz that effectively killed the game off. Firstly a good chase saw Sam Lewis turn the ball over and break clear to find Adam Francis on his shoulder, he timed his pass to perfection and Francis had the pace to beat the cover defence and score.

Wheller added his second try, after ignoring an overlap he had the strength to get to the line himself. Next up, Lewis was left in acres of space as the Hornets continued to move the ball around and his try took the score to 32-7.

Sevenoaks hit back and scored the final try of the match, which was converted. Francis kicked the ball dead to bring the curtain down on an outstanding match.

Hornets have to try and raise their game twice more, as they play Wellington in the Somerset Cup final on Sunday before taking on Warrington in the final of the national competition.

The Cider Club voted fly-half Craig Nicholls and open side Joe Smith as their men of the match.

A huge thank you must go to Henley RFC who looked after the team brilliantly from the second they arrived, and to the officials who allowed these two talented teams to play a cracking game.