YORK Rugby Union Club's Under-9s will be treading on the hallowed Twickenham turf at the end of May.

They turned on the style to book their place at HQ by coming top of their qualifying pool at the two-day Gulliver's Nottingham Festival.

The York youngsters, who were given a pep talk and tips from former British Lion John Bentley ahead of their trip to Nottingham, will be hoping for better luck than St Peter's School's Under-18s, who were beaten in the last minute of the final of the Daily Mail Cup last Wednesday.

At Nottingham, York U9s beat six teams from across the country without conceding a try.

Dylan George's elusive individual run was the only score in a close game against the Hornets.

York freed up the backs in the following games against Leighton Buzzard (four tries to 0) and Brighton (three tries to 0). Charlie Elliot powered over two tries in the centre and with some end to end passing and recycling the team set up Arron Johnson on the wing to score a hat-trick in the left corner.

The most challenging game came against Amersham & Chiltern in which immense tackling was displayed from both sides. The York forwards - Will Scholey, Campbell Thomson, Alex Machen and Jake Garland - battled for every ball and the game was decided by a floated pass to Adam Price to score on the right wing. The tournament ended with a feast of tries from forwards and backs. Oliver Inman and Dan Tai scoring with Jack Mead and Will Pepper contributing to the six tries to 0 win over both Nottingham and Peterborough.

Updated: 10:13 Thursday, March 31, 2005