MARLBOROUGH captain Jamie Pittams concedes the glamour of a potential Twickenham outfit has been too hard to ignore but says his side will be fully focussed for this weekend’s South West Junior Vase final.

Marlborough, who lifted the Southern Counties vase with victory over Abingdon earlier this month, are due to travel to Gloucestershire champions Longlevens on Saturday (kick-off 2pm).

Pittams says his team are ready to leave it all out on the pitch as they sit just two matches away from the home of English rugby, with the Longlevens showdown being the quarter-final of the National Junior Vase.

“We’ve tried not thinking about Twickenham but we’ve trained for this weekend’s game and spent a lot of time talking about it,’’ said the Marlborough skipper.

“It’s been too hard to not think about a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, especially for the older players.

“We’re really up for it and I think that the excitement is really building. We just can’t wait to get out there and get on with it now.

“Last year, we went out of the Senior Vase against Drybrook and we were really disappointed with that one. This time, no matter what happens, we want to make sure that we’ve given everything out there.

“We’ve trained hard and if we do lose, then hopefully we can leave the pitch with no regrets, but hopefully that’s not going to be the result.

“We should have a strong squad and a lot of the guys who are with the forces are coming back into the side too.

“We don’t know a great deal about Longlevens because even though they’re mid-table, we don’t know how strong the Gloucestershire set-up is. But no side gets to this stage of the competition without being competent.”

Pittams added: “It’d be nice to get a decent away support over there too. I’m not 100 per cent sure but if they can’t host it for some reason, we’re going to make sure that it happens at our place, come hell or high water.”

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