Along the way the Saints youngsters - who have been training under the watchful eyes of Alan Dickens and Mark Hopley all week - put in some good performances, earning wins against Gloucester (7-0), Worcester (13-5) and the Ospreys (24-0).

Although the winning run came to an end in the final, the 5-5 draw with Saracens meant that the cup was shared between the good clubs.

Stand-out performances for the Saints came from Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi, Ben Brownlie, Courtney Raymond, Ashley Elvers and Tom Collins, who earned the nod for Player of the Tournament from England Under-18 head coach, John Fletcher.

"The boys have trained well and the tournament was a promising start to the year," Dickens said. "We're particularly pleased for Tom Collins, who backed up his showing in the Sevens a couple of weeks ago with his Player of the Tournament award. Now the boys have set a benchmark we'll be looking for them to keep working hard and improving over the course of the next few months."