Wellington School beat Wellington Under-18s 27-19 in their annual fixture for the Sam Sherwin memorial trophy.

Both sides entertained the large crowd with some exhilarating rugby.

From the kick off the club side made their intentions clear with prop Ryan Marke catching cleanly and smashing his way up field.

The school side held firm however and worked their way into the Wellington half, winning a penalty in front of the posts which was converted by the fly half.

Wellington found they could make in-roads through the power of their pack and when Kes Hitchcock broke off the side of a maul 10 yards out, no-one could stop him going over. Will Brewer slotted the conversion.

Attack was the order of the day for both sides who tried to run the ball at every opportunity.

However it was the Wellington pack who engineered the next score.

A line out in the top corner was caught and driven by the forwards, allowing Ben Hayman to barge over.

With Brewer converting it appeared Wellington would be going into half time with a healthy 14-3 lead. However with the last play of the period Ben Stanyard took a quick tap penalty and raced into the corner to make it 14-8.

The second period saw the school team make more use of their quick back division which soon proved fruitful with another score to make it 14-13.

The club side were straight back into the fray working their way into the bottom corner in front the club.

A penalty five metres out was quickly tapped and Joey Dyke thundered over to open up a six point lead.

Once again the school side used the pace of their backs to work their way into Wellington's 22, and Stanyard was able to pick up from the base of a scrum and race over.

With the conversion being kicked the school took the lead for the first time.

Wellington again went back to their forwards who got them into the corner in front of the club where the large crowd were gathered.

It seemed that the next 20 minutes were played almost entirely in this part of the pitch as Wellinton tried to batter the school into submission.

They would not yield however and as the minutes slipped by Wellington were forced to try and spin the ball wide.

This was the opportunity the school had been waiting for and when the ball was fumbled in midfield, it was hacked down-field.

The school's kick chase was quicker than the club's and a breakaway try under the post was the result. The conversion went over in what proved to be the last kick of the game.

Bill Sherwin, who awarded the trophy, said the match was the best game of colts rugby seen on the Corams Lane pitch for many years.