County set for Twickers
HEAD coach Huw Thomas stressed ‘the job is not done yet’ ahead of Warwickshire’s Twickenham final on Sunday.
Victory over Hampshire booked the red-and-whites a place in the Bill Beaumont County Championship Division 2 final at the home of English rugby, against Durham.
“It’s a massive achievement to get there but the job is not done yet,” said Thomas.
“We cannot just turn up and think we’ve achieved our goal. We need to go and do ourselves justice and put on a performance.”
Warwickshire earned their place in a first county final in eight years by defeating Somerset, North Midlands and Hampshire to top Division 2 Pool 2.
In the regional equivalent Pool 1, Durham scored 163 points in their first two games against Cumbria and Staffordshire before comfortably ending Leicestershire’s hopes of meeting Warwickshire in the final with a 33-10 win.
Not since 2007 have Warwickshire lifted county silverware when they beat Somerset to lift the County Plate at Butts Park Arena and not since 2002 have they appeared at Twickenham, beating Berkshire 34-12 for another Plate success.
“There is a core of players in this squad that have featured in all of our game so far,” added Thomas.
“And I think that really helps. We started this back on May 1 and we’ve grown closer as a group. A lot of the players have connections and have played together in the past.
“Liam Munro and Elliott Brown
We cannot just think we’ve achieved our goal. We need to go and do ourselves justice and put on a performance. Huw Thomas
both last appeared at Twickenham 20 years ago while playing junior rugby for Rugby Lions.
“Of course, some people have had to miss out. We can only select 22 players and there have been some difficult phone calls and understandably disappointed players.
“But they’ve all contributed to getting us to this final and if we win it on Sunday, we owe it to everyone who has pulled on a Warwickshire shirt this summer.”
Warwickshire’s final kicks off a little over two hours after England and Barbarians have competed on the Twickenham pitch.
Two county finals will proceed the international with Essex and Dorset and Wiltshire competing at Richmond while Lancashire and Hertfordshire play at Twickenham, both 12pm kick-offs.
The Warwickshire squad features players from seven different clubs with Nuneaton contributing the most (8), Broadstreet (4), Earlsdon (2), Bir- mingham and Solihull (1), Coventry Rugby (2), Rugby Lions (2) and Newbold (3).
WARWICKSHIRE: Rory Vowles (Nuneaton); Nyle Beckett (Broadstreet), Elliott Brown, Moses Liwaliaw (both Nuneaton), James Neal (Coventry); Dan O’Brien (Newbold), Tom Smitham (Nuneaton); Ben Holmes (Nuneaton), Dale Bowyer (Earlsdon), Jame Dodd (Broadstreet), James Moreton (Broadstreet), Andy Weaver (Birmingham and Solihull), Sam McNulty (Coventry), Dave Melville (Nuneaton), Liam Munro (Rugby Lions). Replacements: Luke Truslove (Broadstreet), Demo Gonsalves (Rugby Lions), Sam Greening (Nuneaton), Nick Walton (Newbold), Rudi Reid (Nuneaton), Phil Reed (Newbold), Paddy D’Arcy (Earlsdon).