Twickenham trip enough for Bridgnorth

Bridgnorth were nominated after going unbeaten in Midlands Two West North, scoring 970 points and conceding just 142.

A stellar campaign also took them to the Twickenham final of the RFU Intermediate Cup. The awards celebrate the sport's grassroots heroes.

Unfortunately for Bridgnorth the top prize went to Wetherby, whose first XV won all 27 of their games last season – scoring 1,483 points and conceding just 159.

But Bladen said: "It's very exciting to be here and being nominated in the top six is pretty much reward in itself. It meant a lot to the club.

"Obviously, the club and the first XV who were nominated for the award had an extremely successful year and this kind of thing just tops it off.

"It's a nice ending to an unbelievable season where we had a lot of success on and off the pitch.

"The whole season and all the success that we've had has been very exciting and then to get this nomination had everyone buzzing.

"It was an excellent day at Twickenham, we were looked after very well and had a nice tour around the stadium into the changing rooms. It was great to be able to go pitch-side ahead of a great evening.

"I think grass roots rugby is incredibly important to every single club all the way up to the England senior side. Our club takes grass roots rugby very importantly – we have a huge mini and junior section.

"We have a huge amount of players that are in our current first team squad that have come up through the minis and juniors and been a large part of their lives.

"It's always special to be at Twickenham, but to have the awards here is great."

The awards are the brainchild of England skipper Chris Robshaw, who said: "Our goal is for this to become a permanent fixture in the sporting calendar."

Bridgnorth started this season as they finished the last, opening with a 21-12 home success over Whitchurch in Midlands One West.

They'll look for more of the same tomorrow at Bournville, who edged past Worcester Warriors 31-27.