Twickenham, here we come: Bridgnorth coach says support makes all the difference

The All Blacks chief expects his undefeated side to face their toughest test of the season at Rugby HQ when they square off against Maidstone in the RFU Intermediate Cup final.

The match pits two unbeaten league champions against each other in front of an audience of thousands.

Maidstone are expected to take around 1,000 fans with them on the day.

But Bridgnorth look set to eclipse that with at least 1,500 expected to make the journey south, despite the town's population being about a tenth that of the opposition.

Smallman, pictured right, said: "It just shows how the town has got behind the rugby club.

"It has been absolutely fantastic and those supporters that are coming down will be our 16th man."We need that support and we certainly needed it in the semi-final at Scarborough, when we had to really defend quite hard towards the end of the game.

"That was our hardest game of the season by a long way.

"The sort of noise that was coming from our support just really made the difference."

Bridgnorth survived some excruciating late pressure to edge out Scarborough 10-6 away in the semi-final,

But Smallman knows the margins between victory and defeat are likely to be even finer tomorrow.

He said: "Maidstone have only drawn one game and won all the rest this season, so they have had a very strong campaign.

"And as you would expect of anyone playing in a national final, they are a very good side.

"We know that Maidstone pride themselves on their set play, their scrummaging and line-out; they have got some very experienced players.

"And they have also got a few players from New Zealand, so they have got a good link there.

"We are expecting our biggest challenge and it is the biggest game in the club's history.

"But that is all part of getting to the final and that is what you expect."

The team may well need all the backing they can get if they are to emerge victorious from what is expected to be a major battle.

But Smallman says the team will take inspiration from their large travelling army.

And he is particularly proud of the fact that their supporters are set to out-number those of a team from a far bigger place.

He said: "When I took the RFU Intermediate Midlands Cup round the town last week, it took me about an hour to walk the High Street.

"I got stopped all the time and people were telling me that they had hired their own buses to the game. We don't know exactly how many people will be there on the day.

"But the amount of interest the game has generated has been absolutely huge.

"The interest from local businesses has also been great and also the local schools.

"Teachers have been saying they are going and when we have visited the schools and asked who was going, loads of hands have gone up.

"I think it will be very much a case of: 'The last person out of Bridgnorth turn the light out!'

"There's 12,000 people living in Bridgnorth and 114,000 in Maidstone – and we are going to get more at Twickenham than them.

"That is our community and if you look at the distances, they are about 50 miles from London and we are about 150 miles away.

"So we are three times the distance that they are from Twickenham; we have got a tenth of the population they have – but we are still going to get more people at Twickenham, which is great."