The newly crowned U13 county champions, Winchester, travelled to Nottingham last week to represent Hampshire in the national junior rugby tournament.

Many of their opponents were county champions in their local competitions.

Teams from across England had made the journey to complete their season playing the strongest competition available nationally. The prize for the entrants was a trip to Twickenham to play their cup final match.

Winchester started their campaign on Good Friday with a match against Old Northamptonians.

Both sides looked below par, possibly due to the travel and lack of familiarity with the competition format. An unsatisfying game ended with athe highly unusual scoreline of 0-0.

The second pool match was against Hertford. By this time Winchester had found their feet and managed to run in three tries, winning 17-5.

The final match of day one was against Braintree, Essex county number two and eventual pool semi finalists.

Braintree managed convincing scores against the other teams in the pool, but Winchester, traditionally slow starters, point and were dominant in a 24-0 win.

Day two of the competition started with a must-win match against unbeaten Bromley.

A tense stalemate was broken late in the first half by a Bromley penalty. Tight mauling by both sides, with the occasional break, continued until midway through the second half. Then, a backs break unleashed top tournament try scorer Vidotto to score in the corner and secure Winchester's 5-3 win.

There followed another heart stopping match for the Winchester supporters with a 12-10 win over Kesteven.

The pool finished with an encounter with Bournemouth. While Winchester were dominant, scoring five tries, the attrition rate was high due to a highly aggressive defence.

Winchester lost their second player of the day by ambulance to Nottingham Casualty, but finished 31-5 winners and top of their pool.

The semi-final match was against Hereford, unbeaten from their pool. Two evenly matched teams exchanged punching runs until Vidotto managed a wing break to score the first try.

A Hereford try and one by captain Fox then made it 12-7 to Winchester.

In the last quarter, Hereford mounted a sustained attack, continually punching from within the Hampshire team's 22.

Twice they carried over the line, but were repulsed both times, Fox sustaining an injury by getting himself between ball and ground. A valiant defensive effort matched the many earlier stunning attacking moves.

The prize for this gruelling seven match tournament will be a national cup final match against Essex county champions, Romford & Gidea Park. This match will take place on May 28 on the Twickenham pitch before the annual England v Barbarians match.