An under 11 mixed team finished in the top six in the Tag to Twickenham competition, when the 24-strong national final was held at Rugby on July 9.

The Thame children won their first three matches 5-2, 5-3 and 8-3 to put them into the last eight, where schools were divided into two pools of four.

They drew two and lost one of these pool matches, albeit narrowly, to finish third in their group.

While it was a great achievement to get this far in a national competition, it was not enough to put them in the grand final.

With reference to the final pool matches, teacher Peter Greenwood said: "Every single game was incredibly close and the game we lost was only 5-6."

The finals gave the children the chance to meet England star Mark Cueto and rugby legend Dean Richards.

"I'm very proud of the children," said Mr Greenwood. "They worked very hard all year in training."

Tag rugby is non contact, with no scrums or line-outs.