Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ Round Up Saturday 1st September 2018
As well as an U19 Inter Provincial game played against Munster in Cork on Saturday 1st September there was one schoolboy friendly game played on Thursday 30th as well as quite a few games played on Saturday 1st.
The Royal School, Armagh team played Rugby School at U16 level on Thursday 30th August in a game the RS Armagh team won by 39-26. The game was played over 3×20 minute sessions during which the RS Armagh team scored seven tries. Joseph Webb and Ben Scott each scored a try in the first session with Peter Taylor, James Agnew and Romaine Morrow scoring one try each in the course of the second session and Sam Harrison touching down twice in the third session. Romaine Morrow was successful with two conversions during the game.
On Saturday 1st the Ulster U19 squad, with sixteen schoolboy players on board, travelled to Cork Institute of Technology to play their Munster counterparts. The Munster team won the encounter by 34-22 with Ulster finishing off strongly but rueing the fact they did finish off some well created scoring opportunities. Munster took a 5-0 lead through an unconverted try from Timmy Duggan. Ulster responded with an unconverted try from Conor Rankin to take the score to to 5-5. Munster extended their lead to 12-5 with a penalty try but the Ulster team responded with a penalty from Conor Rankin to reduce the Munster lead to 12-8 at the interval.
Ulster took a 15-12 lead eight minutes into the second half when Conor Rankin converted his own try. A series of errors allowed Munster to touch down for tries through Ciaran Ryan, Alex Kendellen and Ronan Quinn. Two Ben Daly conversions, as well as a Charlie O’ Doherty penalty, put the Munster team into an unassailable 34-15 lead. However, the Ulster team got some reward for their endeavours when, following a good series of plays, Robbie Mathers touched down for a try, which Conor Rankin converted, to leave the final score board reading 34-22 in favour of the Munster team.
The Ulster U19 squad will regroup with their coaching staff of Jonny Gillespie, Willie Anderson and Jonny Graham during the week in preparation for the next U19 Inter Provincial game against Connacht U19s which will be played at Bangor Grammar School at 3-00pm on Saturday 8th September. All support will be very welcome.
Grosvenor Grammar School hosted their annual Ian H Graham Cup tournament with six school teams participating. Rainey Endowed School, Grosvenor Grammar School, Belfast Royal Academy, Wesley College, Dublin, Banbridge Academy and Dromore High School were the teams involved.
The teams were divided into two groups with the Group 1 Results as follows:-
Banbridge Academy 0 Grosvenor Grammar School 0
Dromore High School 7 Grosvenor Grammar School 0
Bambridge Academy 12 Dromore High School 0
The Group 2 results were as follows:-
Belfast Royal Academy 12 Rainey Endowed School 5
Belfast Royal Academy 14 Wesley College 5
Wesley College 15 Rainey Endowed School 0
Belfast Royal Academy defeated Banbridge Academy 26-0 in the final to secure the Ian H Graham Cup, Wesley College defeated Dromore High School in the 3rd/4th place play off and Rainey Endowed School defeated Grosvenor Grammar School 7-0 in the 5th/6th place playoff.
For The Belfast Royal Academy team Harry Warke, Rob Sturgess, Brendan Hassan, Daniel Logan, Zach Burton and Charlie George all impressed while Ross Crockford, Luke Crory, Andrew Denvir and Leo Mark all impressed with their performances.
Foyle and Londonderry College hosted a pre-season round robin tournament with four schools participating. Dalriada School, Foyle College Enniskillen Royal Grammar School and Omagh Academy were the participating schools in the tournament. Dalriada School and Omagh Academy drew 7-7, Omagh Academy defeated Foyle College by 10-0 and Omagh went on to defeat Enniskillen Royal Grammar School by 7-0. Will Stewart, Jake McKay, Ryan Armstrong, Michael Marechaux and Robbie Sproule all impressed for the Omagh Academy team in the course of all the games.
.Down High School, Regent House School, Friends’ School, Lisburn and Bangor Grammar School played out another round-robin tournament from which Bangor Grammar School emerged as the undefeated team. Rhys Larmour, Will Simpson, Angus Christie, Harry Angus and Harry McCracken all played well for the successful Bangor Grammar School team.
Having defeated St Gerard’s College, Bray by 28-24 in their first game of the season on Saturday 25th August Methodist College played a tournament against Cambridge House and Larne Grammar School on Saturday 1st September. The Methody team defeated Cambridge House by 21-7 in a game where Kane McElroy impressed for the Cambridge House team. Cambridge House then defeated Larne Grammar School by 7-0 with Andrew Wilson scoring the try which was converted by Rory McCandless.
Ballymena Academy hosted Ballyclare High School in a game the Ballymena Academy team won by 26-12. At the end of an evenly contested first half the Ballymena Academy team had built up a 12-5 lead with an unconverted try from Ben Johnston who took full advantage of some good work from Simon McWhirter, and a try from Paul Gocher which was converted by the impressive Ross McKay. In response the Ballyclare HS team scored an unconverted try through Ethan Crawford.
The second half saw the Ballymena Academy team score two converted tries through Frankie Andrews and Alex McKinney with Ross McKay adding both conversions. The Ballyclare High School try came from Robert Reid and was converted by Adam Clarke to leave the final score board reading 26-12 in favour of the Ballymena Academy team.
