May 7th 2019 was the day Leicestershire Rugby Union hosted both the colts and senior men’s County Cup finals at Welford Road for a season finale.

The first match of the night was between Syston RFC and Market Harborough RUFC colts, kicking off at 6pm. The first half saw Syston in the lead for most of the time until Harborough delivered possibly the best try of the evening which was finished by Joe Laferty between the posts. Watch it on our You Tube channel – you will be impressed!

With Harborough now in the lead 15-13, Syston upped their game and put 2 more tries down from Will Westwood and Will Hutchings. Harborough continued to dig deep, but couldn’t quite find the line before the whistle blew with the final score 26 – 22 and the 2019 Laurence Fenton, Leicestershire Rugby Union County Colts Champions are Syston RFC. Congratulations.

During the interlude between games, Leicestershire Rugby Union President, Steve Rice presented trophies to Merit league winners and runners up and also a cheque to The Royal British Legion for money raised at the 100 year Memorial Game played in November between Leicestershire Servicemen and The Royal Signals Army Rugby team. The cheque was presented to the Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire, Mike Kapur OBE and Phil Waldren from The Royal British Legion. 

Next up to play on the Welford Road turf were the senior teams. Syston RFC and Oadby Wyggs RFC. Syston were the defending champions but Oadby had not made the final since 1981, so both clubs were chomping at the bit to get the game underway.

Syston swiftly put 10 points on the board but after a yellow card and one man down, Oadby took advantage and scored 2 tries to take the score to 10 – 12 before Syston were awarded a penalty and another 3 points taking the score to 13-12 at half time.

After the break, Syston came out on full power and quickly took the score up to 28-12. But Oadby responded and didn’t give up. The final score was very respectable but Syston were victorious to take the double win at Welford Road. Full Time 33-27. Congratulations to the senior men at Syston RFC who retained their title as Leicestershire Rugby Union County Cup Champions.

We hope that all the players and supporters enjoyed both games at Welford Road. Thanks again to Leicester Tigers for allowing us to play on their pitch. Leicestershire are very lucky to have a Premiership club open their ground to us and supporting grassroots rugby.

Also a big thank you to everyone who supports all rugby in Leicestershire throughout the season. In particular, the volunteers at each and every club who are integral to everything that we do. Events like this do not happen on their own and everyone plays their part.

Thank you to Ian Palfreyman Photography for taking photos throughout the evening. Photos are available from his website

Here’s to a great 2019/20 season!