JUNIOR RUGBY: DEVIZES and Sheldon, Chippenham, Schools both missed out on the chance to play at Twickenham on Saturday after bowing out of the Daily Telegraph Cup in their respective qualifying tournaments at Richmond and Staines.

Both schools won through to the last 48 of the national competition, with Devizes representing Wiltshire in the under 13s competition and Sheldon taking part in the under 12s event.

The semi-finals of both age group tournaments took place before the annual Army and Navy challenge match before 44,000 at Twickenham, with the finals held at half time.

Devizes came the closest to making it to the home of the England national team, bowing out in the quarter finals of the under 13s tournament with a 10-0 defeat at the hands of eventual finalists Leigh School.

They had previously defeated the champions of Staffordshire, Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, Middlesex and Suffolk to finish as winners in their six-team group.

Devizes physical education teacher Nick Passenger said: "There were lots of tears from our team and supporters. The boys were fantastic and what was pleasing was that we won the fair play award for the tournament.

"This was a fantastic result for Devizes School sport. Well done to the boys. To end the season as one of the top eight state schools for rugby in the country is some way to end the season."

Sheldon made a blistering start in the under 12s event at Staines with wins in their first two group matches. But a draw and two defeats followed, meaning the Wiltshire champions failed to qualify from their group of six.

Adam Douglas, head of physical education at Sheldon School, said: "The frustrating thing was that we beat the winners of the whole thing, Rednock School, at a county tournament in Devizes last year.

"The boys' coach Dick Ball told me they didn't play as well as they could and, on the day, we weren't good enough.

"But it was good for us just to get there and the boys all had the chance to go to Twickenham to watch the Army and Navy game."