FALMOUTH helped celebrate more than ten seasons of the Land Rover Premiership Rugby Cup by taking part in an event hosted by Exeter Chiefs on Sunday.

The Land Rover Premiership Rugby Cup, a nationwide series of events, has seen more than 82,000 children take part to date and continues to grow, providing developmental experience for young players to excel in a professionally run environment.

This weekend it was Exeter Chiefs’ turn to host their event this season with Exeter Saracens RFC the venue with 32 teams strutting their stuff across an under-12 and under-11 festival.

And in the under-11s competition Falmouth demonstrated plenty of effort and skill but fell just short of earning a trip to the Gallagher Premiership Rugby Final on June 1, where they had the chance to meet a Land Rover rugby ambassador, and join in a Land Rover Premiership Rugby Cup Parade at half-time, plus find out who has won the Junior Land Rover Discovery of The Season award.

But despite seeing that honour go to Saltash; player Riley Dibb from Falmouth, was still proud of his side’s performances.

“It’s been good, it’s been fun playing teams that we’ve never played before,” he said.

“We’ve been doing well, we’ve only lost one match, so we think we’ve played quite well.

“It’s been good, because we haven’t really done a tournament like this before.

“I used to like football, and my friend started doing rugby, so I thought that I’d give that a go and when I started I just started loving it.”

Participating players at the festival also had the opportunity to meet Chiefs player Charlie Wright, who took time out of his schedule to watch the young teams as well as offer some coaching tips between games.

And he commented on the importance of grassroots rugby, saying: “Rugby at this level is about expressing yourself.

“The competition’s important, but at this level you don’t want to focus too much on the competition; you want to start performing well and recognising that performance, rather than getting a result at the end of it.

“Everyone should be enjoying themselves, getting to know other people and be building relationships.”

Land Rover has heritage in rugby at all levels; from grassroots to elite, sharing and understanding the values at the heart of the game. Follow @LandRoverRugby