Bermuda's preparations for next month's Conyers Youth Cup rugby tournament in Cayman Islands moved into full gear on Sunday as the Bermuda Under-14 team took on a touring side from the English school, Yardley . . . and avenged a defeat by the same team two years' ago.

On that occasion Bermuda were given a solid rugby lesson with the tourists notching up two convincing wins.

And although Yardley might have been somewhat jet-lagged, it was the Bermuda team who romped to a comfortable victory, nine tries to three.

The match started with fluid and controlled back play by the visitors, drawing in the Bermuda players before a probing run saw them touch down over the Bermuda line early on.

Concern in the Bermuda camp that there would be a repeat of the last encounter was halted when flanker Kevin Fraser cleaned up a scrappy ball, went wide and outpaced the opposition to touch down under the posts. That finished the scoring for the first half.

A few minutes after the break, Graham Cooke stole a Yardley ball at the back of the line-out and powered his way over for another Bermuda try and the home side finally began to take control.

Brian Egan and Giles Lorimer Turner repeatedly set up second phase play, and Yardley were largely deprived of the ball although they looked dangerous whenever they had it. A try by Tadgh O'Shaughnessy after an elusive run suggested that this might be Bermuda's day.

This was settled by a powerful run nearly the full length of the pitch by newfound fullback Ryan Brown who scored under the posts. Shortly after Daniel Nash raced to gather up a clearance kick and touched it down over the line.

The visitors responded with two well-taken tries but further scores by O'Shaughnessy (2), Cooke, and Brown gave the hosts a confidence-boosting win.

The two teams will meet again on Saturday when the visitors hope to be fresher and will look to even the score.

Select sides in the U-10, U-12, U-14 and U-16 age groups will be travelling to Cayman in three weeks' time. Bermuda will be seeking to retain the Conyers Cup which they won last year when the tournament was played in Bermuda.