A TRIP to the home of English rugby awaits three of York RUFC's junior sides.

Three of the Clifton Parkers' junior sides are Twickenham bound after excelling in the Gullivers Festival at Nottingham last weekend.

The Under-9s, U10s and U11s all qualified to play in Richmond, with only the U12s narrowly missing out.

The U11s, who lifted the main Cup trophy at Twickenham two years ago, had a tough group including Northampton and Teddington, but produced an astonishing performance.

In their first four games they conceded no points, beating Sandal 10-0, Northampton Old Scouts 5-0, Teddington 15-0 and Ormskirk 30-0. They advanced to the quarter-final where they saw off Warrington 10-5 and will now play their semi-final, and final, at Twickenham on Monday, May 28.

Despite teams from as far afield as Barnstaple, West Norfolk and Wales, Sandal and Otley also came through their quarter-finals to make it a Yorkshire dominated day out in London next month.

In the U10s age group, York won five and lost two of their pool games before drawing with Teddington in the play-off.

They won through to Twickenham, however, on try countback and will now face Old Northamptonians in a re-run of last year's Plate final, with the youngsters looking for revenge following a narrow defeat 12 months ago.

The U9s qualified after winning five, drawing one and losing two of their eight games - with Will Atkin York's player of the tournament.

It was a tremendous achievement for the U9s, who were undertaking their first foray at the Gullivers Festival.

Nick Elliot, who is on York RUFC's junior committee, said: "It was a great achievement given the geographical spread of all the teams involved.

"This great effort is down to the junior membership numbers, the quality of junior coaching and the achievement of the RFU seal of approval.

"It will be a fantastic day out for everyone. We may be going on Sunday to watch the IRB World 7s and then these youngsters will be playing on the same turf the following morning.

"Tewlve of the 14 lads from the U11s have been there before - when they won as U9s so they will know the stage.

"Obviously, we are hoping to bring back a haul of trophies and it would be great if all of the three teams could win their respective competitions."

Meanwhile on the international stage, England U16 A players Robbie Cuthbertson and Craig Hampson had a mixed time of things when they represented their country at the Millfield International Festival last week.

Robbie, of Wigginton and St Peter's School, and Craig, of Ashville College, Harrogate, both came through a number of trials to make the squad and take part in the prestigious junior international tournament.

Both played in England's opening 22-0 win over Canada but, unfortunately, that was as good as it got for the U16 A lads, who then lost their next encounter 17-15 to Scotland and were defeated 15-10 by France in their final game.