Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ Round Up Saturday 25th March 2017
The Royal School Armagh won the Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ Medallion Shield for the first time in the school’s history following a 10-6 victory over Friends’ School, Lisburn on Wednesday afternoon.
Played at a very wet and windy Kingspan Stadium, both sides displayed some excellent skills, and no lack of purposeful endeavour, in the difficult conditions. Armagh got off to a dream start when Peter Taylor got over for a try after just three minutes when the centre showing a blistering burst of speed to get over in the left corner. Ethan McAtarsney added the superb touchline conversion to open up a 7-0 lead for the Royal School, Armagh team. It took Friends’ School, who were also chasing a first Medallion Shield title, just four minutes to respond, when out-half, Reece Malone, confidently dispatched a 25m penalty to take the scoreboard to 7-3 in favour of the RS Armagh team. There were little further clear cut chances for the remainder of the half with both defences standing up well to any attacks.
The Royal School, Armagh team added a penalty through Ethan McAtarsney shortly after the restart to extend their lead to 10-3. On forty eight minutes Reece Malone slotted over another outstanding penalty from almost 40m to reduce the Friends’ School deficit to 10-6. In the final ten minutes Friends’ piled on plenty of pressure in search of a game-winning try but the Armagh defence remained resolute as they held on for the historic 10-6 win.
Royal School, Armagh team:
(15-9): Ethan McAtarsney, Joshua McClure, Peter Taylor, Ross Taylor, Christopher Whiteside, Romain Morrow, Charlie Worth;
(1-8): James McBride, Charlie Rolston, Sam Rainey, Kyle George, Philip Irvine, Jude Roberts, Josh King, Ryan Finlay.
Replacements (16-23): Joshua Cunningham, Adam Willis, Kelton Welch, Bryan Nguyen, Jayson Denley, James Allen, Sam Harrison, Joseph Partridge.
Friends’ School, Lisburn team:
(15-9): Joe Anderson, Sam Scorer, Stuart Patterson, Jack Harte, Fergus McEwen, Reece Malone, David Scott;
(1-8): Ross Shields, Marcus Pringle, Jack Harte, Ben Greenhill, Ethan Terris, Sam Le Seeleur, Michael Glass, Max Gillespie.
Replacements (16-23): Eoin McCarry, Ben Rowlatt-McCormick, William Campbell, Mark Woods, Kyle Gormely, Ryan McGucken, Patrick McElhinney, Ben Topping.
The annual O’Kane U14 tournament, played at Ballymena Academy on 25th March, was won by Enniskillen Royal Grammar School who defeated Ballymena Academy in the final. These teams came through having defeated Coleraine Grammar School and Wallace High School, respectively, in the semi-finals.
On Saturday 25th March the Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ Seven-a-Side Tournament took place at Campbell College when most of the schools in the province took part in Senior, Junior and Medallion competitions. The tournament was played in bright, sunny conditions and thoroughly enjoyed by all the participants.
In the Senior competition Royal School, Armagh defeated Dalriada School in the final.
In the Junior competition Royal School, Dungannon defeated Banbridge Academyin the final.
In the Medallion competition Wallace High School defeated Cambridge House in the final.
As ever the competition was organized by Mr John McKinney and hosted by Campbell College. Everyone concerned would like to thank Mr McKinney and his colleagues at Campbell College for organizing and hosting such an enjoyable event.
