By Mohamed Hamza, Sportsbeat

Lymm High School head of rugby Lee Pickles hailed one of the best one-half performances he had ever seen after his side’s heartbreaking defeat to Ampleforth College in the Continental Tyres Cup.

Having been down 21-3 at halftime, a flurry of second-half tries saw the Cheshire school come close to mounting one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the U18s National Cup, narrowly succumbing to a 26-24 loss at the final whistle.

And though Lymm High School may have ultimately tasted defeat at Ampleforth, Pickles voiced his immeasurable pride in his side's determined and dogged display.

“We were saying it’s probably the best performance we’ve done in one-half of rugby against a quality school”, said Pickles.

“We said at the end it was brilliant and they could take a lot of pride in what they did, especially against a school that has so much access to players.

“We were down at half time 21-3 but the lads played really well in the second-half and we came back to go ahead 24-23.

“It was hard in the first half because they scored three tries pretty quickly but we spoke to the guys and said ‘Look when you turn around in the second-half we’ve got a bit of an advantage and I feel the way we’re playing is going to be able to beat them' and we took on that on board and did it really well.

“We continued to play the Lymm way. We could’ve easily gone to a boring, kicking, tactical game but we like to run the ball a lot and try to get our outside backs playing really good rugby and get them outside so they’re in space to score a try.

“It worked until it didn't and unfortunately they managed to score in the last ten minutes just to get ahead and we couldn’t get the extra points to take over again but the lads have done themselves really proud.

“They were so brilliant and we’re well chuffed with them.”

The Continental Tyres Cup is foundational to age-grade rugby in England, enabling students from across the country to compete against one another and represent the best the game has to offer at schoolboy level.

Though Lymm High School's dream run in the competition ended in heartbreak, Pickles already has one eye on the future.

He added: “We always had to compete against bigger, more organised rugby schools but to see the boys play and keep to the mentality of running the ball was really good.

“This has put us back on the map a little bit. The lads are really keen to carry on into next season and it’s shown younger people that we’re a good rugby school and we can do these things.

“We can build on that.”

The Continental Tyres Schools Cup is an important part of the age-grade rugby landscape in England, with schools’ rugby often where players fall in love with the game for the first time. For more information visit the Continental Tyres Schools Cup section of the England Rugby Website.