Belfast High School recorded an impressive 52-18 win against Banbridge Academy in their 2nd Round of the Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ Cup encounter.
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However, it was the Banbridge Academy team that played most of the rugby in the opening exchanges. The Belfast High School team took a 5-0 lead from the kick off when Jordan Garford and Joel McBride combined to put Jordan in for an unconverted try. The Banbridge Academy team was not fazed by this early setback. Their pack, with Calum Boardman, Tom Carlisle and Rory Carson to the fore took the game to their Belfast High School counterparts. Aaron Kennedy was successful with two penalty chances to take a 6-5 lead after eighteen minutes. The Banbridge Academy team then increased their lead when Rory Thompson intercepted a pass inside the Belfast High School 22m area to run in under the posts for a try. Aaron Kennedy added the conversion to see his team into a 13-5 lead. Belfast HS had to be the next team to score otherwise it could have been them on the losing end and they did, again through Jordan Garford. The conversion was good from Robbie Reid to reduce the arrears to 13-12. Belfast HS now really started to take control and Joel McBride was managing the game with great confidence. Joel made the break that presented Adam White with a try which he took well. Robbie Reid added the extras to see the Belfast High School team into a 19-13 lead. Belfast HS backs looked dangerous every time they got the ball. Jordan Garford added another couple of unanswered tries to see his team into a 33-13 lead.
Banbridge Academy got the second of their intercept tries midway through the second half through Nathan McKinley. The try was unconverted and the score was now 33-18 in favour of the home team. The main threat from Banbridge was definitely from their forwards with Calum Boardman and David McKeown (Capt) having strong games with their pick and drive tactics. Lewis Benson had a very strong game at second row for Belfast HS displaying outstanding skills in the linesout. The game finished with Belfast High School scoring three unanswered tries. The first came from Jordan Garford through his usual strong running, the second from Scott Shaw after great work from Joel McBride throwing a miss pass and Scott running in from 30 metres out with the third coming when Lewis Benson drove over from a lineout to touch down, Robbie Reid added two conversions to take the final score to 52-18 in favour of the Belfast High School team.
