The Northern Bank Ulster Schools\u2019 team travelled to Donnybrook in Dublin to take on the Leinster Schools\u2019 team in the first of this season\u2019s Schools\u2019 U18\u2019s Inter Provincial games. The Ulster Team had benefited in their preparation over the summer period from two good wins against the Lancashire Schools\u2019 U18 team as well the touring Lanquedoc U18 team.
\nHowever, things did not go as planned against a very talented Leinster Schools\u2019 team. The hosts were able to call upon the services of a number of last season\u2019s very successful Ireland Schools\u2019 team and their class and ability was apparent from kick off. With only eight minutes on the clock the Leinster team ran in their first try of the afternoon when centre, Fergal Cleary, outwitted the Ulster defence to touch down for an unconverted try and give his team a 5-0 lead.
\nThe Ulster lads responded positively from the restart when Thomas Donnan and Lewis Benson combined from an intercept to send Rory Campbell away into space. Rory did not need any invitation and outpaced a surprised home defence to run in for a try. The conversion attempt was unsuccessful but the Ulster team was back in the game with the scoreline reading 5-5.
\nUnfortunately for the visitors they were unable to much in terms of possession for the remainder of the half. The Leinster pack provided a lot of quality possession of which their backs made the best possible use. The impressive Billy Dardis ran in for a try after thirteen minutes which Ross Byrne converted to give his team a 12-5 lead. Five minutes later Fergal Cleary ran in his second try of the game. Again, Ross Byrne was successful with the conversion to extend the Leinster lead to 19-5. Six minutes later Billy Dardis ran in his second try of the game. This try was converted by Ross Byrne to extend the Leinster lead to 26-5. On the stroke of half time the Leinster No 8, Nick Timoney, scored a try. Again, Ross Byrne was successful with the conversion to leave his Leinster team with a very healthy 33-5 interval lead.
\nThe Ulster Team lacked nothing in terms of commitment and effort but any forages they made into Leinster territory were quickly repelled.
\nThe Leinster scored seven minutes into the second half when Josh Murphy touched down. Ross Byrne converted the try to increase the Leinster lead to 40-5.
\nConor Shields made a great break for the Ulster team and the visitor\u2019s took play deep into home team territory. However, following a good passage of play the final pass went astray and the Ulster team got no reward for their enterprising approach.
\nLeinster responded immediately when their replacement scrum half, Tim Schmidt, son of the Leinster Senior coach, Joe Schmidt, got his hands on the ball for the first time and outpaced the Ulster defence to run in for a try from thirty metres. Ross Byrne converted to put his team into a 47-5 lead in the forty ninth minute of the game. Six minutes later, Irish Schools\u2019 2nd Row forward, Rory Maloney, touched down for a try. Again, Ross Byrne was successful with the conversion and Leinster Schools\u2019 now had a 54-5 lead.
\nAgain, the Ulster team refused to lie down and a great break from Andrew Shaw ended with the hard working Ulster captain, Daryl Morton, being dragged down just inches short of the Leinster line.
\nThe Leinster team scored two more tries in the final few minutes through James Mc Cormack and Nick Timoney. Ross Byrne was successful with both conversions to leave the Leinster Schools\u2019 team as deserved 68-5 winners.
\nThe Ulster team has a week to work on regrouping before they head to Galway to play Connacht Schools\u2019 at the Sportsground on Wednesday 12th September.
\nNorthern Bank Ulster Schools\u2019 team.
\nJack Owens\t\tCampbell College
\nRudolph Benade\tMethodist College
\nJohn McClure\t\tRBAI
\nRory Bell\t\tRBAI
\nRory Campbell\tRBAI
\nConor Shields\t\tColeraine AI
\nJosh Fullerton\tCampbell College
\nMichael Lagan\t\tMethodist College
\nMax Montgomery\tBangor GS
\nAaron Gilkinson\tWallace HS
\nLewis Benson\t\tBelfast HS
\nThomas Donnan\tDown HS
\nDaniel Dass\t\tBelfast Royal Academy
\nAndrew McClure\t\tRBAI
\nDarryl Morton (Captain)\tRoyal School, Armagh
\nAndrew Shaw\t\t\tBangor GS
\nRory Squires\t\t\tLimavady GS
\nConor McIlmurray\t\tCampbell College
\nAlexander Thompson\t\tMethodist College
\nCalvin Kernoghan\t\tBallymena Academy
\nJames Gallagher \t\tMethodist College
\nPeter Kidd\t\t\tColeraine AI
\nJack Milligan\t\t\tRoyal School, Dungannon
\nConnor McKee\t\tMethodist College<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Northern Bank Ulster Schools\u2019 team travelled to Donnybrook in Dublin to take on the Leinster Schools\u2019 team in the first of this season\u2019s Schools\u2019 U18\u2019s Inter Provincial games. The Ulster Team had benefited in their preparation over the summer period from two good wins against the Lancashire Schools\u2019 U18 team as well the touring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3959,17213,1997],"class_list":["post-31910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ulster-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-schools","tag-ulster"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31912,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31910\/revisions\/31912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}