RGS scrum half Nick Duncombe will make his fourth consecutive appearance at Twickenham as his school bid to claim the Daily Mail Under-18 Schools Cup at the end of this month.

The England U18 player has been part of the Wycombe school's amazing success story for the last four years. And last Saturday he helped keep it going.

Duncombe was among the RGS side that saw off Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in a tight 6-3 victory at Castlecroft in the semi-finals of the U18s competition.

It is the fourth year in succession that the Wycombe school has had a team in the finals, either at U18 or U15 level, and gives them the perfect opportunity to avenge last year's U18s final defeat by Colston's Collegiate School.

And coach Colin Tattersall knows his boys are up for big clash on March 27.

He said: "They wanted Colston's, that's the ultimate prize. They want to show that they can defeat them on a big stage. The boys know they can do it."

But they will have to start scoring if they hope to do that.

In last Saturday's other semi-final, Colston's trounced Durham 30-0 to complete their near-perfect path to the final. They have let in two penalties, but no side has managed to cross their try line on the route to Twickenham.

Duncombe will be a key player for the RGS at the final in a fortnight's time.

At last year's Twickenham Schools Day, when RGS U18s lost 21-9 to Colston's, he played in the England 16 Group showpiece clash against Wales later that day.

And he knows what it feels like to win at Twickenham, he was among the victorious RGS U15s side that won in 1996 and 1997, when he scored a hat-trick of tries.

But Duncombe is not alone in his Twickenham experience, although he has more of it than most.

The entire starting XV playing in last Saturday's semi-final have all played at Twickenham during the last four years.

Captain Alex Melrose, Duncombe's England team-mate, played in last year's U18 defeat and the 1996 victory.

Last Saturday, it was the boot of Matthew Honeyben that did the business for Wycombe.

Honeyben's two penalties, scored in the 37th and 63rd minute, the first of which cancelled out James Burrough's 19th minute kick, were all that split the two sides.

And RGS can breathe a sigh of relief that QEGS failed to press home their superior penalty advantage early in the first half.

QEGS had six kickable penalties in the first 25 minutes, but Burroughs managed to convert just one.

It was just the break Wycombe needed.

Afterwards Tattersall said: "We were giving away too many penalties and we could have shot ourselves in the foot."

The deciding moment of the clash came during a long spell of QEGS pressure midway through the second half. QEGS were unable to break down the RGS defence and when Honeyben converted his second penalty shortly after Wycombe had kicked themselves out of danger, the pendulum had swung in their favour.

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