WELLINGTON helped celebrate more than ten seasons of the Land Rover Premiership Rugby Cup in an event hosted by Exeter Chiefs on Sunday, writes Joe Leavey. 

More than 82,000 children nationwide have taken part in the Premiership Rugby Cup, which provides experience for young players in a professional environment. 

Exeter Chiefs hosted their event at Exeter Saracens RFC and 32 teams took part in an under-12 and under-11 festival.

In the under-11s competition Wellington demonstrated plenty of effort and skill but fell just short of earning a trip to the Gallagher Premiership Rugby Final next June.

Thomas Knell, from Wellington, was still proud of his side’s performances. “It was good – we won quite a few of our games, and lost one, but we all played well and had fun,” he said. 

“It was really good to meet the Exeter Chiefs players. I love playing rugby with my friends, having fun, all of it really. We just kept playing how we were playing.”

Players also had the opportunity to meet Chiefs player Charlie Wright, who took time out of his schedule to watch the young teams and offer coaching tips between games. 

He said: “Rugby at this level is about expressing yourself. The competition’s important but at this level you don’t want to focus too much on the competition – you want to start performing well and recognising that performance, rather than getting a result at the end of it. Everyone should be enjoying themselves, getting to know other people and building relationships.”