RUGBY: Lions players and their coach set for Twickenham final

Five Peterborough Lions players plus their head coach Darren Fox are off to Twickenham at the weekend.
Del Veenendaal scored a try for East Midlands.Del Veenendaal scored a try for East Midlands.
Del Veenendaal scored a try for East Midlands.

They will be in the East Midlands squad to take on Kent in the County Championship Plate final at RFU headquarters on Sunday (May 29) after finishing top of the Bill Beaumont Cup North Division with three wins out of three.

The third win which secured a place in the final for the first time in their history arrived at Borough’s Fengate ground on Saturday when East Midlands beat Durham 28-19.

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Will Carrington, Del Veenendaal, Sam Crooks and Tom Lewis all played for East Midlands - Veenendaal scoring one of their four tries - and a fifth Lions player, Adam Barnard, who was unavailable for the Durham game, will be added to the squad for Sunday’s showpiece final, which kicks off at 10am.

Darren Fox.Darren Fox.
Darren Fox.

Fox has been part of the East Midlands coaching set-up this season working alongside Ampthill’s Paul Turner.

He said: “I was delighted to be given the opportunity to be part of the East Midlands set-up and working with a coach of the calibre of Paul Turner has been tremendous. I have learned a lot,

“The main goal was always to get to Twickers and the lads have achieved that with three fine wins. I’m pleased for them and now it’s all about enjoying the occasion. And obviously from a Lions point of view it’s fantastic to see five of our players involved.

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“I’ve played at Twickenham three or four times and it’s a wonderful experience. They are days you treasure for the rest of your life.”

Apart from the East Midlands v Kent game there will also be two other county championship finals - kicking off at noon and at 5.15pm - while at 3pm England take on Wales in their summer tour warm-up.