YOUNGSTERS from four Hampshire schools will be hoping to grace the hallowed turf of Twickenham on Saturday after winning through to the national finals of the Daily Telegraph Emerging Schools' Festival.

In what has become the world's biggest youth rugby tournament with more than 40,000 children taking part, Eastleigh's Crestwood College, Test Valley School in Stockbridge, Fareham's Cams Hill School and Priestlands School from Lymington have all reached the last stage of the competition.

In a Saturday morning knock-out tournament at Staines RFC, in London, the schools will hope to win through to their respective age-group final to be staged in the afternoon at Twickenham before and during the half-time interval of the annual Army v Navy clash.

Year seven boys at Cams Hill School warmed up for the biggest day in their rugby careers to date with a training session led by Hampshire RFU's Andy Kirby.

The Fareham school's progress has been remarkable given that at the start of the year only four of their 19-man squad had ever played rugby before.

They have progressed through the Fareham and Gosport round, the Hampshire round and the southern round to reach the national play-offs winning 17 of 17 games.

Teacher David Worthy said: "It's unbelievable the excitement levels of the players and their parents. It's very rare that this type of opportunity presents itself.

"We have rugby teams throughout the school here and it's really taking off."

Should they succeed they will be following in the footsteps of fellow Hampshire school Testbourne Community School who beat Carre's Grammar School from Lincolnshire to claim under-12 honours last year.