GRANGE Park Primary School finished as runners up in the Tag Rugby National Finals.

The school, from Winchmore Hill, was beaten in the final of the event at Rugby School by Holy Trinity Lamorbey.

Grange Park - who finished third in the competition last year - staged a fine second half fightback against the Kent school before losing 6-3.

The final was played in front of a 300-strong crowd including current and past England and British Lions internationals Mark Cueto and Dean Richards, Grange Park have the consolation of a rematch against Holy Trinity, though, this time in front of 80,000 people as the curtain-raiser to next season's Six Nations clash between England and Italy at Twickenham.

The World's End Lane school qualified for the 24-team finals as both borough champions and London and Eastern Counties champions.

They were placed in a qualifying group with teams from Dorset, Leicestershire and Surrey.

And despite panicking at key moments during their last game, two wins and a tight 1-1 draw were enough to qualify for the afternoon's semi-final group.

This was a much tougher proposition, with last year's champions Trewirgie first up.

Grange Park produced some first-rate handling in the wet conditions, though, resulting in a terrific 6-6 draw against the Cornish side.

In their next mach against Black Firs, from Cheshire, Grange Park let an early lead slip but regained focus to run out 7-4 winners.

This set up a group decider against Burraton, also from the tag rugby hotbed of Cornwall.

Burraton were unbeaten this year, but they could not match Grange Park's unrelenting pressure defence and support running, and were beaten 6-3, which included a fine hat-trick from Summer Ryan.

The grand final against Holy Trinity started well, with an early try by Rishabh Shah.

But a tired Grange Park side gave the ball away in critical situations and were on the wrong end of some lax refereeing, going behind 5-1 at the interval.

A try by Rosie Watts at the start of the second half brought some hope, but despite a brave fightback and a further score from Summer Ryan, Grange Park eventually lost 6-3.

Coaches Hannah Lay and Paul Smith were very proud of the team's performance.

And they said: "It was a tremendous performance by the whole squad to make the grand final.

"They played with determination and in the true spirit of rugby, and are a credit to the school."

Pool results: Grange Park 5-2 St St Katharine's (Dorset), Grange Park 5-3 Church Langton (Leicestershire), Grange Park 1-1 Ravenscote (Surrey).

Semi-final group: Grange Park 6-6 Trewirgie (Cornwall), Grange Park 7-4 Black Firs (Cheshire), Grange Park 6-3 Burraton (Cornwall).

Final: Grange Park 3-6 Holy Trinity Lamorbey (Kent)