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Some of Bermuda's junior rugby players will be testing their skills against their counterparts in the U.K. this weekend when they compete in the Bath Mini Rugby Festival in England. Bermuda was honoured to secure an invite to send teams to compete in the Under 11 and Under 12 age groups. This invite follows successful tours to the Chobham Mini Rugby Festival in 2007 and the Cayman Islands in 2008. Bermuda's junior teams also recently won the inaugural Conyers Cup played against their Cayman Island counterparts at the National Sports Centre in Bermuda.

The two squads were chosen from players who participated in the Bermuda Rugby Football Union's mini rugby programme last season. Team coaches agreed that this is a great opportunity for our local players.

"Our players compete against each other every week during the season so to be able to travel and play against teams from big UK club programs is very exciting. The players have been training very hard for several months and are really looking forward to this opportunity", said Robbie Dickinson, one of the Under 11 team coaches. Each team will play a warm up match on Saturday against teams from King Edward School in Bath and on Sunday they will compete in the rugby festival.

The popularity of mini rugby and school rugby in Bermuda has continued to grow over the past few years. There have been over 200 players in the mini rugby program each of the past several years ranging in age from 4 to 14 and five schools competed this year in the middle school rugby league.

Teams:

U12: Graham Cooke, Gates McGavick, Daniel Nash, Giles Lorimer Turner, Toby Brook, Tadhg O'Shaughnessy, Rory Crofts, Dillon Page, Calum Maule, Nicholas Da Costa, Micah Perozzi, Brian Egan, Ryan Robb, Grenville Lines, Riley MacNeil, John Edwards, Samuel Cabot, Matthew Blee

U11: Ferdinand Arnold, Logan Ball, Liam Bird, Isaiah Bell-Philips, Shannon Botelho, Samuel Brook, Ryan Brown, James Collins, William Collins, Benjamin Cook, Tyler Dickinson, William Lorimer Turner, Samuel McKittrick, Charlie Pilgrim, Shomuri Simons, Mikiel Thomas, Cameron Turnbull.

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