Durham School first team have booked a place at Twickenham for the final of the national Under-18 Daily Mail Cup competition.

Durham's opponents in the final at Twickenham on March 31 will be Campion College from Essex who narrowly defeated Durham's local rivals The Royal Grammar School, Newcastle in the other semi-final, putting an end to the alluring prospect of an all North-East final.

This is the first time in Durham's history that they have reached the final of the competition, although Durham have reached the quarter-finals in each of the past five years and the semi-finals four times out of the last five.

This season five Durham School pupils have earned international recognition.

Four have been chosen to represent England at Under-18 level and one at Under 15, a remarkable achievement for such a small school.

Michael Stephenson, a former captain of rugby at the school, played in three Daily Mail Cup semi-finals - on the losing side - but was a member of the Newcastle Falcons side which won the Tetley Bitter Challenge Trophy.

In a nail-biting contest, Durham School drew 10-10 with Pangbourne College from Reading on Saturday morning at Castlecroft, Wolverhampton (headquarters of the Schools' RFU) but won because they scored more tries.

Although Durham enjoyed the majority of the possession throughout, Pangboume went into a ten-point lead with a converted try and penalty and led 10-5 at half-time, after Vacass Ali scored the first of Durham's two tries.

In a pulsating second-half, Grant Lowes, having come on as a substitute, scored a second try for Durham after which neither side could break the deadlock.

With less than ten minutes to go, Pangbourne missed a relatively easy penalty to the enormous relief of the Durham team and their supporters and, in spite of some intense Durham pressure, the game finished without any further score.