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The Age Grade Inter Provincial games impacted greatly on a number of teams who played schoolboy friendly fixtures on Saturday 12th September. Chief among these was the Ballymena Academy team who played Wallace High School. With more than half their team unavailable due to the Schools and U19 Inter Pro games the Ballymena Academy team will have been delighted to defeat last season’s Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ Cup finalists by 10-3. That “doyen” of Ulster Rugby referees, Mark Orr, added considerably to the game by astute use of the advantage laws and both sets of players expressed their appreciation of the referee’s performance after the game. The game which was watched by a large group of supporters, including the recently appointed Chairman of the IRFU Rugby Committee, former King’s Scholar’s RFC, Ulster and Ireland player, Ian McIlrath, was played at a high intensity by both teams.
In a tightly-contested game, Ballymena Academy started the stronger and were unlucky not to score in the opening five minutes. A line break from Ryan Malcolm created space for Alan Small but the covering Wallace defence stopped the Ballymena centre just short of the line. Following a period of sustained pressure scrum half, Conor Cosgrove, spotted a gap to touch down for the opening try of the morning. Bruce Houston added the extras to put the home team into a 7-0 lead. As the first half progressed, Wallace High began to dominate possession but the well-organised Ballymena defence was a match for the Wallace team’s aggressive running. Just before the half-time whistle, Ballymena could have increased their lead but a ‘double movement’ in the process of touching down denied Azur Allison the score.
In the second half, both teams continued to show a willingness to keep the ball in hand and this, along with the positive refereeing, allowed for long periods of entertaining rugby. Midway through the half, Ballymena were awarded a kickable penalty and Bruce Houston made no mistake to increase the home team’s lead to 10-0. Late in the game, Wallace replied with a penalty but Ballymena Academy finished strongly as the score remained 10-3 until the final whistle sounded.
