A crowd of 2,000 people from Northampton is expected to be travelling down to Twickenham next weekend to watch Northampton School for Boys (NSB) in the final of the Daily Mail cup.
The secondary school, in Billing Road, is hoping to become the first state school in 10 years to win the national competition which is traditionally dominated by teams from fee-paying private schools.
NSB will be taking on the defending champions, Dulwich College, at the home of English rugby on March 23.
Mark Lee, NSB rugby coach, said the school had been allocated 2,000 tickets from the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and he was hoping they would all be used by parents, pupils and staff at the school, as well as people from Northampton.
Mr Lee said: “It is a fabulous achievement for the boys and a chance for the people of Northampton to get behind us.
“The boys have had a fantastic mind-set and desire all the way through.
“There is a lot of excitement and interest in the tickets at the school and we have be inundated with people asking when and where they can get their tickets.
“For the semi-final we had hundreds of people lining the pitch and I’m sure the support had a hugely positive effect on the team.”
Mr Lee said the school was planning to run about eight coaches for supporters, but the team would be travelling down to London the day before the game.
He said: “We are going down on the Friday then staying in a hotel. We will probably take the boys out to a park on the Saturday morning to try to take their minds off the game.”
Jack Spittle, aged 18, the captain of the team, said he was a “bit apprehensive” about the match, but was hoping the team’s spirit would help them emerge victorious.
He said: “Dulwich are a team that have massive forwards but we always play with our heart on our sleeves and fight hard. We are a team, not a bunch of individuals.
“It is going to be the biggest game of my life,” he added.
People in Northampton can pick up tickets from the school or from Old Northamptonians RFU and 150 tickets will be available at the Chronicle & Echo reception in Upper Mounts.
The NSB v Dulwich College is one of four games being played at Twickenham on March 23.
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