In 2008, the Harlequins Land Rover Cup Competition was launched to allow aspiring young rugby players across the country to take part and play against teams from their local area.
The Land Rover Premiership Rugby Cup is a nationwide tournament for under 11 and under 12 teams. The long running grassroots rugby tournament was the first of its kind to be officiated by Premiership Rugby and is run in conjunction with all 12 Premiership Rugby clubs and has been supported by Land Rover since its inception.

For the first time in the club’s history, our u11’s squad (with a couple of u10s) took part and they gave a good account of themselves. Playing against some of the largest and longest established minis and juniors clubs in Surrey, our boys and girl played very well and demonstrated the ambition of the club to play free flowing rugby while at the same time growing the sport in our region. Another feather in our cap was that we fielded possibly the only girl in the competition - Georgia Lalande. Our u10s (Tim Bracken and Joshua Collins) who played a year up accounted themselves well and will have gained good experience in next year’s competition.
With four pools and six teams in each pool, we were in Pool 1 which contained Cranleigh, Bury St Edmunds, Beccahamians, Cobham and Pulborough. This was the first time our team were playing with the recently introduced u11s new rules of play
In their first game against Pulborough, they played exceptionally well, defending excellently only to concede two tries in the final 2 minutes of the 10 minute game. Lost 10-0
Having shaken off their rustiness and nervousness, they dominated their second game to beat Cranleigh. Having defended well for many minutes, the team broke from their 22 with superb runs by a number of players before Samuel Kabia scored the winning try. Win 5-0
Against Bury St Edmunds, a lapse in concentration in the first 2 minutes of the game meant that the conceded two quick tries. Despite winning the majority of possession for the remaining 8 minutes, they could not cross the whitewash. Lost 10-0
The game against Beccahamians - our closest rivals was our cup final. With two players each side going to the same school (St Thomas Becket), the winners would have bragging rights in the school playground for the rest of the season. However, bragging rights were shared.
Our players started the brighter and scored the first try from a 5m penalty move. Andy Aheto drove through taking half the opposition with him before spinning to touch the ball down over the line.
Two minutes later Beccahamians equalised only for Daniel Ivanov to show off his dazzling side step, dummy move to score in the corner.
However, they came back again and equalised in the dying minutes. Draw 10-10.
Our final game was against Cobham who went on beat us and win the pool. Despite our valiant defensive qualities, Cobham’s counter-rucking and direct running got the better of the team. Lost 15-0.
James Ward, Tyrus Preece-Walkes and Abhinav Menon tackled strongly throughout the competition. Fabian Baptiste, Joseph Gallon and Diran Oresanya made searing runs and are on the way to becoming accoplished players.

Sutton & Epsom went on to beat Cobham in the semi-final and theneon the tournament by beating Guildford in the final. Our players will return next year looking to do the same.
Our players represented the following primary schools;
Cypress, Downsview, Heavers Farm, Howard, St Andrew’s, St Chad’s St James The Great, St John’s CoE, St Thomas Becket and Sunninghill.
Andy Aheto
Fabian Baptiste
Timothy Bracken
Joshua Collins
Joseph Gallon
Daniel Ivanov
Samuel Kabia
Georgia Lalande
Abhinav Menon
Diran Oresanya
Tyrus Preece-Walkes
James Ward