Captain Neil Wardingley was delighted to finally get his hands on the RFU Senior Vase trophy at Twickenham on Sunday, 13 years after he suffered cup final heartbreak with Bromley.
The skipper was one of two surviving players who lost to Heath in 2002, the last time Bromley played at the Home of Rugby.
But he made amends at the weekend by leading Bromley to a 20-10 win over West Leeds and afterwards expressed pleasure at how his team-mates brought their A game to the big occasion.
Wardingley said: “I’m absolutely speechless. We’ve dreamt about it and the boys really put in a shift today.
“I’m so, so proud of them. We’ve thrown everything into this cup and to win this is amazing.”
Captain Neil Wardingley with the trophy
Bromley dominated from the outset, but couldn’t find a way past the Leeds defence in the first half and somehow went into the interval 10-3 down.
They continued to attack in the second half and a break through try from prop David Banfield was followed by a Patrick Moore finish after a spectacular run from James Powell.
Wardingley added: “We weren’t quite executing our game plan as we wanted to in the first half, we were a bit scrappy.
“In the second half we really stuck to it.
“They lost their captain Sam Neave, who was a very influential player.
“We started opening them up a bit more and having more of the ball.
“As the game went on we grew in confidence and they maybe dipped.”
Banfield, who is returning to army duty after his Twickenham heroics, revealed scoring on the hallowed turf didn’t quite sink in at first.
“Initially it just felt like any other score,” he said.
David Banfield scores Bromley's opening try
“Then I got up, saw everyone going nuts in the stands and realised that I am in Twickenham and have just scored where all the England boys score.
“We knew we were a strong outfit and we play well under pressure in the big games.
“No disrespect to Leeds, but they didn’t really offer much in attack.
“We knew once our chances broke we would definitely capitalise on them.”
An early Tom Beaumont second half penalty had reduced the arrears to 10-6 before Banfield’s try in the 55th minute put the London Three SE outfit ahead for the first time in the match.
And the increased confidence was epitomised by the lively Powell running 60 yards with the ball before offloading to Moore on the hour.
Powell said: “I saw there was a bit of space outside and I backed myself to get round the winger. I didn’t even see Pat at all until the last minute when I was falling.
“I just threw a wild haymaker and it landed straight into his hands.
“Pat was screaming at me but I couldn’t hear him because of the noise that was erupting from the stands.
“We had a small crowd but the noise was just incredible and echoed around the stadium.”
Moore added: “We knew after that try we had to shut them down, play our game and dictate.
Patrick Moore scores
“We were quite comfortable towards the end.”
Both players returned to their day jobs this week, Moore in business development and Powell in advertising.
It will be a while before their achievement sinks in.
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