Preview: Community Cup Finals reach Twickenham
Four Papa Johns Community Cup finals take place at the Home of England Rugby on Sunday, as the 22/23 season comes to an end, and grassroots clubs make memories to last a lifetime.
The action kicks off 11am when North Bristol and Gloucester Old Boys meet in the Men’s Counties 3 & Below Championship Final. The Men's Counties 2 Championship Final follows at 1pm, when Wensleydale take on Teddington.
Watch the live stream
At 3pm Harlow play Old Alleynians in the Men's Counties 1 Championship Final. Both sides had sensational league seasons, with Harlow going unbeaten, while Old Alleynians lost just twice.
That form has translated into the Papa Johns Community Cup, as both sides won on home soil in the semi-finals, Harlow defeating Cockermouth 27-12 and Old Alleynians winning 29-17 against Chobham.
Now attentions have turned to the final at HQ, where Harlow will play for the very first time, to the delight of Chair Paul Tucker.
"This match will go down in club history as the first time the senior men’s first team have played at Twickenham," he said. "That is obviously amazing and we have also won our league this year, so we are on a bit of a roll, having won all 22 matches in the league and then this cup run.
"We've done a bit of research on Old Alleynians and I think it’s going be tough but we’ll see. We have five coaches travelling with 250 supporters via coach and we’re expecting another 150 driving so we’ll be about 400 strong. The whole club has brought into the day from under-6s up to the senior side and we are the talk of the town, which is just amazing."
Old Alleynians Head Coach James Knox added: "We cannot wait to get out there, we are relatively fortunate that five or six of our squad have already played at Twickenham before, so we will be leaning on them for a bit of their experience.
"I have been at the club since 2014 and was captain before I was coach, so it is pretty special to be able to get there."
Men's Regional 2 Championship final
In the last game of the day at 5pm Horsham and Old Northamptonians will contest the Regional 2 Championship, and Horsham are heading to Twickenham en masse for the showdown.
"We’re expecting around 1000 people to make the trip, we filled up 12 supporters’ coaches in 48 hours," said Horsham chair Richard Ordidge. "We could fill up a lot more but there aren’t enough coaches available in Sussex.
"Our average crowd is about 150, which looks disproportionate, but not only have we got the whole club involved, we’ve got the town rallying round and it seems to have paid off as there’s huge interest."
Opponents Old Northamptonians have their own party to throw and are determined to close out their centenary season in style.
Director of Rugby Richard Blank said: "We are hugely excited. For pretty much everybody it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. It’s a huge honour for us to play in the final match at Twickenham and effectively close out the whole competition.
"It gives us a day to experience, we’re expecting about 400-plus fans and we’re looking forward to the final chapter of a hugely enjoyable journey."
