Friends prepare to get stuck in!

There is certainly an air of expectation around Friends School Lisburn as they prepare for this Saturday’s fourth round match in the Northern Bank Schools Cup against Sullivan Upper School. KO 10:30am.

Despite losing to the Holywood based side earlier in the season, 1st XV Coach Stephen Robinson is looking forward to the game and he feels that his team have got what it takes to progress to the next round.

“As a past pupil of Sullivan, I’m definitely looking forward to this match, I’m sure I’ll be hearing from a few old treammates.

Sullivan have a strong back row and their No. 10 Carr can definitely control the game if you let him, but the boys have been working hard since the game against Larne and we’re confident that with home advantage and a big crowd behind us that we will have the edge this time round.

We’ve also been fortunate to have Isaac Boss from Ulster Rugby help out with the coaching in his spare time and his infectious enthusiasm for the game has certainly rubbed off on the boys.”

Friend’s No8, Dave McGuigan and their Captain and hooker Alasdair Trimble know they will be facing tough personal battles but are pleased that the rest of the school have got behind the team for their big day.

“The whole school is up for the game on Saturday. Our friends are trying to get out of hockey so they can come along and watch and it’s going to be a great experience to play in front of a big crowd.

We know their back row is strong and they have quick outside backs. We’ve been working hard on our defence and we’re happy we can counter them. Their set piece is good, both in the scrum and lineout, but we have good players of our own and our whole team is very motivated. We can’t wait for Saturday and as far as the result goes , well, we’ll find out on the day.”

Centre Andrew Vance, Friends’ stand out player from their match against Larne Grammar, is also wary of their opponents attacking ability, however, he feels that Isaac Boss’ influence has been a big help.

“Isaac has been coming along once or twice a week and he’s been a brilliant help. We’ve been working on our containment, pressing in defence and preventing teams getting the ball to the wing.

He’s helped improve our game and I’m really looking forward to it. I can’t wait to get stuck in!”

So there we have it, ‘getting stuck in’ is what it’s all about in the Northern Bank Schools Cup and judging from the air of understated confidence on Wednesday afternoon, as coach Stephen Robinson took the boys through their preparations ahead of Saturday’s big game, here is a team prepared to do exactly that.