Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ Round Up Saturday 22nd March 2025.
On Monday 10th March, Cambridge House Grammar School hosted an U13 Blitz Tournament with ten teams and around 230 players taking part.
Schools involved included Antrim Grammar School, Ballymena Academy, Cambridge House Grammar School, Carrickfergus Grammar School, Coleraine Grammar School x 2, Dalriada School, Larne Grammar School, Limavady Grammar School and Rainey Endowed School.
Two groups of five teams played out the group format stages with the top two teams from each group playing in the semi-finals.
Coleraine Grammar School topped Group A with Ballymena Academy finishing in the runners-up spot.
Rainey Endowed School topped Group B with Larne Grammar School finishing in the runners-up spot.
The semi-final draws saw Rainey Endowed School play Ballymena Academy with Larne Grammar School playing Coleraine Grammar School.
Ballymena Academy played Coleraine Grammar School in the final with Coleraine Grammar School finishing the day undefeated.
Meanwhile, at Roughfort, Belfast Royal Academy followed up the success of their recent U12 Tournament with an eight team U13 Blitz tournament involving around 180 players from Ballyclare High School, Belfast Royal Academy, Dromore High School, Friends’ School, Lisburn, Regent House School, Royal School, Armagh, Sullivan Upper School and Wallace High School.
Teams were organised into two groups of four with each team playing three group stage games.
The winners and runners up in each group played out two semi finals from which Wallace High School and Sullivan Upper School emerged as finalists.
The result of the final game saw the Wallace High School team come through as overall winners.
On the same day, Antrim Grammar School hosted Fergus Highland RFC from Ontario in Canada in games involving players at both U16 and U18 levels.
At U16 level, the Antrim Grammar School team scored 34 points through tries from Jonah Woolley, Daniel Dukalli, Tom McNeilly, Kyle Brown and Callum Lavery.
Isaac Lynn added two successful conversions as well as a penalty. Calum Lavery added a third successful conversion.
At U18 level, the Antrim Grammar School team scored 40 points.
Johnny Robo, Calum Campbell, Angelo Simangan, with 2, Eoin Byrne and Alexander Lynn scored the Antrim Grammar School tries.
Alexander Lynn was also successful with five of his conversion kicks.
On Wednesday 12th March two Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ finals took place.
The Kingspan Stadium was the venue when Campbell College, Belfast played Methodist College, Belfast in the final of the Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ Subsidiary Shield.
At then end of this 12 try thriller, Campbell College, Belfast emerged as 45-31 winners.
The Campbell College, Belfast team scored their points through tries from Rus Veikune Alo Lovo, with two, James Wells, Michael Bradbury, Paddy Woods, Maxwell Scott and Cal McKinney.
Henry Ralston was successful with five of his conversion kicks.
The Methodist College, Belfast team scored five tries in the course of the game.
Harry Doherty, Joe Thompson, Peter Lindsay, Matthew Scott and James Reid touched down for one try apiece with Louis Curran adding the extras to three of the Methodist College tries.
After the final whistle, Laurence Rocke, President of the Ulster Branch, Irish Rugby Football Union, congratulated both teams, as well as their coaches, on reaching the final, thanked the parents/guardians of all the players for their support given to the players throughout the season, thanked the referee, Rob McGreer, and his team of David Wilson, Peter Pedlow and Nick Scott, for the way in which they controlled the game, thanked Paula Bradley, Chris Webster and the Ulster Branch staff, for the use of facilities and hosting the game and thanked the Danske Bank for their continued support, now in its 20th season, of all the Ulster Schools’ competitions.
Laurence, alongside Andrew Sproule, Senior Project Manager at the Danske Bank, then went on to present the Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ Subsidiary Shield finalist medals to all the players involved and the Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ Subsidiary Shield to Jed Dornan, captain of the victorious Campbell College, Belfast team.
Meanwhile, at Belfast High School, Belfast Royal Academy 3rdxv played Royal Belfast Academical Institution 3rdxv in the final of the Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ 3rdxv Trophy.
The Royal Belfast Academical Institution team won this closely contested game by 15-13.
After the final whistle, John Wilson, a member of the Ulster Branch, Irish Rugby Football Union, congratulated both teams, as well as their coaches, on reaching the final, thanked the parents/guardians of all the players for their support given to the players throughout the season, thanked the referee, Shane Toolan, for the way in which he controlled the game, thanked Michael Rainey, for the use of facilities and hosting the game at Belfast High School and thanked the Danske Bank for their continued support, now in its 20th season, of all the Ulster Schools’ competitions.
John then went on to present the Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ 3rdxv Trophy finalist medals to all the players involved and the Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ 3rdxv Trophy to William Allen, captain of the victorious Royal Belfast Academical Institution 3rdxv team.
Friends’ School, Lisburn went on tour to Italy where they played a game against the Collerero RFC U18 team.
Despite playing the game in difficult underfoot conditions, the Friends’ School, Lisburn team recorded a 17-5 victory.
Matthew Hare touched down for two unconverted tries with Ross Glover scoring one try to which he added the successful conversion.
In the second game of their tour to Italy, the Friends’ School, Lisburn team played the Roma SUD RFC U18 team.
The Roma SUD RFC team won the very closely contested game by 21-19, scoring three converted tries.
The Friends’ School, Lisburn points came through tries from Joel Irwin, Scott Henderson and Patrick Arnold with two successful conversions from Ross Glover.
Dromore High School played Lurgan College in an U17 game at the Barban Hill venue.
The Dromore High School team won this closely contested game by 26-21 with a last play of the game try.
Alfie Clark, Zac Corbett, Charlie Freeburn and Sam Mercer scored the Dromore High School tries to which Alfie added three successful conversions.
The Lurgan College team scored three tries through Ben Maxwell and Andrew Bird, with two.
Ben added the extras to all three of the Lurgan College tries.
Monday 17th March saw Royal School, Armagh and Wallace High School play in the final of the Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ Cup, the Blue Riband competition of Ulster Schools’ Rugby, in front of a large crowd of spectators at the Kingspan Stadium.
The Wallace High School team won this entertaining Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ Cup final with a hard earned 24-15 victory.
The Royal School, Armagh team took a 3-0 lead, early in the game, when Evan Hughes converted a penalty kick opportunity.
The Wallace High School team responded immediately when the powerful Rio McDonagh touched down for an unconverted try to see his team into a 5-3 lead.
The Royal School, Armagh team then scored their first try of the game when Cameron Cummings took advantage of a series of phase plays before crashing over for a try.
Evan Hughes added the extras to see the Royal School, Armagh team into a 10-5 lead.
Back came the Wallace High School team with Harry Daniel leading the way with a great break taking play deep into the Royal School, Armagh defensive zone.
The Wallace pack took over with a series of strikes at the whitewash before James Gould crashed over for a try.
Josh Geddis added the conversion to see the Wallace High School team into a 12-10 lead.
This became 17-10 just before the break when Rio McDonagh touched down for his second unconverted try of the game.
The Wallace High School team started the second half strongly and increased their lead to 24-10 when Luke Dillon ran in for a try which was converted by Josh Geddis.
The Royal School, Armagh team then regathered and took play into Wallace High School territory.
Charlie Reaney was held up just short of the whitewash but the impressive Thomas Dougan was on hand to finish things off with an unconverted try to reduce the deficit to 15-24.
Both teams were denied the opportunity for further points by well organised defences and the Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ Cup final ended with the Wallace High School team recording a hard earned but, ultimately, well deserved 24-15 victory.
After the final whistle, Laurence Rocke, President of the Ulster Branch, Irish Rugby Football Union, congratulated both teams, as well as their coaches, on reaching the final, thanked the parents/guardians of all the players for their support given to the players throughout the season, thanked the referee, Peter Martin, and his team of Rob McGreer, Paul Morriss, Chris Cahoon and Vincent Hughes, for the way in which they controlled the game, thanked Paula Bradley, Chris Webster and the Ulster Branch staff, for the use of facilities and hosting the game and thanked the Danske Bank for their continued support, now in its 20th season, of all the Ulster Schools’ competitions.
Laurence, alongside Vicki Davis, CEO at the Danske Bank, then went on to present the Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ Cup finalist medals to all the players involved and the Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ Cup to Jon Rodgers, captain of the victorious Wallace High School team.
It was a busy end to the season at both Ballymena Academy, where the annual O’Kane U14 Tournament took place as well as at Coleraine Grammar School, where both the NEBSSA and Coleraine Grammar School U13 tournaments took place.
At Ballymena Academy, 12 teams of 23 players took part in the annual O’Kane U14 competition which saw Ballymena Academy playing Larne Grammar School and Sullivan Upper School playing Coleraine Grammar School in the semi-final games.
After two close encounters in the semi-finals, Ballymena Academy played Coleraine Grammar School in the final.
Ballymena Academy won the final by 10-3 which ensured they retained the O’Kane U14 Trophy.
Ballyclare High School won the O’Kane Plate.
A big thank you goes to all the participants as well as to the USRFR members who came along to referee the games.
A special mention to Adrian Miller, who not only refereed his games but, also, stepped in as first responder to a medical emergency on the touchline to deal with a situation which, thanks to Adrian’s intervention, ended with a positive outcome.
Over 500 young players, from 26 schools, took place at the Coleraine Grammar School tournaments where Willow Park School, the Blackrock College Junior School, won both the Cup and Plate competitions.
The NEBSSAA Tournament finished with Dalriada School winning the NEBSSA Cup and Antrim Grammar School, the NEBSSA Plate.
Meanwhile, at Pirrie Park, Methodist College, Belfast hosted the 20 team Danske Bank Ulster Schools’ Medallion Sevens Tournament with over 200 hundred players involved.
Four groups of five team played out the group stage games.
The group winners then played off in the semi-finals with the Ballymena Academy team playing the Campbell College, Belfast team in the final.
Ballymena Academy won the final by 26-12.
