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Sedbergh’s goal-kicking full-back Johnny McPhillips has fired the Cumbrian team to the top of the Daily Mail Schools Trophy.
McPhillips landed a last-ditch, long-distance penalty to seal Sedbergh’s 37-34 win over arch-rivals Wellington on Tuesday at the Broadstreet club in Coventry.
A memorable match between two of English rugby’s top school teams saw Sedbergh’ s stronger forwards keep Wellington’s speedy backs just at bay.
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Wellington, who had led the table previously, needed the pace of wing Sam Aspland-Robinson who contributed three tries to keep them in sight of the strong Cumbrians whose lock Alex Moon scored two tries.
Robinson’s third try levelled the scores at 34-34 only for McPhillips, who had already landed one long-distance kick, to smartly add a second for a three-point advantage.
Even then, in the final moments, Wellington earned a chance to level through a penalty, but they choose to kick for the corner in an attempt to score a winning try off a line-out move.
‘The boys wanted to win,’ explained Wellington coach Kevin Brennan.
‘In hindsight maybe we should have gone for goal, but we wanted to win.’
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