There is a full list of fixtures scheduled to take place on Saturday 13th November.
Grosvenor Grammar School put on a brave display in their last outing at Ballyclare High School. The Grosvenor pack asked questions of the Ballyclare pack and will hope to ask questions of the Campbell College pack when the two sides meet at the Cameronian Drive venue on Saturday. Mark Foster, Mark Cahoon and Scott Irvine are vital players for the Grosvenor Grammar School team. They will need to be at their best when they play Campbell College. The Campbell team narrowly lost their last game against Dalriada despite being 18-3 in the lead at half time. The will wish to ensure that there is no repeat of their second half performance on Saturday. The Campbell team is littered with representative players such as Charles Gallagher, Chris Farrell, John Creighton, Marc Best, Jan Francois Bester and Rory Scholes. They will see themselves as favourites to win against Grosvenor Grammar School but must not take the opposition for granted.
A weakened Friends’ School team lost to Down High School last weekend and will be hoping to get back to winning ways against a Carrickfergus Grammar School team that has found difficulty in getting winning results this season. Friends’ should have Jamie Robinson, Aaron Bassett, Ross Robinson and Rory McIvor back in action for the visit of the Carrickfergus team. The Carrick team made Banbridge Academy work hard for a win in their last game. Andrew Fulton and Jonny Moore are amoung a number of Carrickfergus Grammar School players that the Friends’ team will need to watch closely. If not, there could be a surprise result in store!
Down High School will see themselves as favourites when they host the Wellington College team on Saturday. Both teams had wins against Friends’ School teams last weekend and the Down team will look to their representative trio of Aaron Cairns, John Donnan and Stuart Orr to lead the way against the Wellington team. Gareth McCaughey, Adam Webb, Connor MacKay and Freddie Birt all played well against the Friends’ Select team. They will need to do so again against the Down High School team.
Sullivan Upper will hope to record a win when they entertain close rivals, Regent House, on Saturday. The Holywood boys had the better of their opening exchanges against the RS Armagh team in their last game but still found themselves behind at half time. Things got no better in the second half and the Sullivan team ended up losing heavily. Rory Eves, Ryan Loughead, Oliver Loughead and Jamie Halliday will look for an improved team performance against the Regent House. Regent House won against Cambridge House with a degree of comfort but the players know they are not playing anywhere near to their full potential. They will look to the experienced players such as Stephen Colwell, Nathan Burns, Willie Mayne and Jonny Burns to see them through this testing encounter.
Belfast Royal Academy will hope for an improved performance when they host a well organised and very committed Foyle and Londonderry College team on Saturday. The Academy lost out, by a considerable margin, to Bangor Grammar School last Saturday. The Foyle team recorded an excellent win against Royal Belfast Academical Institution and will travel to Roughfort in a very positive frame of mind. The Belfast Royal Academy team will hope that Ryan Clarke, Matthew Robinson, Michael Wylie and Eoin Devlin can play to their potential. The Foyle team will hope that Tom Burns can recover from injury in time to play in this game. Whether Tom is able to play or not, there are game breakers such as Chris Campbell, Ian Vance, Neil Burns and Graeme McCarter available for the Foyle team who will relish the opportunity of claiming another notable scalp.
RS Armagh host a Wallace High School team that has been going through a period of inconsistency in terms of recent results. The teams meet at the College Hill venue on Saturday and both teams have exciting players to choose from. For the Armagh team much of their success has been built on the performance of players such as Neil Faloon, Stuart Hooks, Timothy McNeice and Peter Eves. The recent displays of Willie Gordon at scrum half have impressed and the Armagh team has been undefeated so far this season. Wallace High School can call upon the services of exciting players such as David Scott, Cal McIlwaine and Jordan Grattan, These players will hope to ask questions of the RS Armagh defence in what will be an interesting encounter.
Belfast High School recorded a rare but very welcome victory in their last game when they defeated Antrim Grammar School by 34-5. The High School team built their win on the performance of the Number 8, Ryan McGonigle. He was involved in all that was good about the High School performance and managed to get on the score board with a well taken try. Matthew Boyd, Jonny Greenlees, Robbie Fryars and Matthew Huntley scored tries as well in that game. These players will hope for more of the same when they entertain Banbridge Academy on Saturday. The Banbridge team has been quietly efficient in their recent games and has recorded a number of successful results this season. Chris Craig is proving to be an effective outhalf with Michael Runciman causing problems for opposition defences with his attacking runs from the full back position. The Belfast High School team will have to watch these players closely on Saturday.
The Royal Belfast Academical Institution team has lost their last few games in trying circumstances. They will see the visit of the RS Dungannon team to Osbourne Park on Saturday as an opportunity to get back into winning mode once more. Zach Welshman was ruled out, due to injury, for their recent trip to Foyle and Londonderry College but is hopeful of playing against a Royal School team that has had to cope with more than its fair share of injuries this season. The RS Dungannon team will hope to be at full strength with Peter Nelson, Sean Ho, Andrew Clingan, Jacob McCammon and Gary Wong all having key roles to play.
Bangor Grammar School had an impressive win against Belfast Royal Academy last time out. The Bangor team had great performances from Stuart McCloskey, Craig Harper, Karl Lamont as well as their young Year 12 winger, Matthew Hamilton. The Bangor team plays host to the currently unbeaten Ballyclare High School on Saturday and on current form should ask severe questions of the Ballyclare High School credentials. Jonny Holmes, Paddy Hamill, Peter Ferguson and Marc Logan have all been key to the Ballyclare High School success in recent games. They would take great pleasure in coming away from Ballymacormick Road with another victory under their belts.
Portora Royal School have experienced difficulties in recording wins this season. They have talented players available for selection, in particular Rory Gibson in their back division. They host a Coleraine AI on Saturday and could look upon this game as a potential win. Coleraine AI have a number of key players in critical areas and will look to Paddy Farrell and Michael Poskitt to control the game from their half back positions.
Ballymena Academy has had a reasonably successful season in terms of results so far. They suffered a setback last weekend losing narrowly to St Michael’s College, Dublin in an exciting encounter. They have a lot of attacking potential available for selection with Caleb Morrison displaying all the skills that have enabled him to gain representative honours at Ulster Schools’ U18 and U19 levels in the past two seasons. Timmy Patton, Sam McNabney and Peter Wallace encourage their pack to provide quality ball for the back line to use. The Rainey Endowed team will visit Ballymena on Saturday encouraged by their recent good performances and positive results. Rainey players such as Luke Steele, Damien McMurray, Martin Connolly, Jamie Burrows and Mark McErlean would like nothing more than to come away from the Ballymena Academy playing fields on Saturday with a victory.
Omagh Academy recorded a rare win against Lurgan College last weekend. This will put them into a positive frame of mind for the impending visit of Limavady Grammar School on Saturday. Harry Gibson, Ashley McIlwaine, Gary Sherrard and Matthew Deazley were among the points scorers against Lurgan. They would be delighted with a similar return when they play the LLimavady Grammar School team. The Limavady team have had a break over the recent half term and should be in a confident mood for their trip to Omagh. However, they have flattered to deceive in some of their games this season and Nathan Barr, Conor Crampsie, Shay McIntosh and their Limavady team mates should take nothing for granted in this game.
The Methodist College team has come out on top in their recent games against schools from Leinster. They defeated St Mary’s College and Belvedere College in recent weeks and will hope to make it a hat trick of success against schools from Leinster when they host Castleknock College on Saturday. The Methody pack laid the foundation of their success against Belvedere College with their front and back row combinations proving too strong for the opposition. Oliver McCollum, Dan Kerr and James Harrison are a formidable scrummaging trio as well as working hard in open play. If they can provide enogh quality ball players such as Marc Gribben and Matthew Mc Faul should be able to capitalise and cause concern for the Castleknock College defence.
Lurgan College host Antrim Grammar School and will hope to reverse the result of their most recent meeting. Josh McKay, Greg Lyness and Stephen Buckley will hope to get sufficient for the Lurgan College back division to ask questions of the Antrim Grammar School defence. The Antrim team will see Supreet Jayaprakash, Aiden Howe, Calum McClenaghan and Ryan Bailie as key players as they attempt to get another positive result against the Lurgan College team.
Larne Grammar School a Saturday free from rugby last weekend and will approach their game against Dalriada well refreshed after their recent successful tour to Canada. They will play against a team that will be brimming with confidence following the recent 20-18 win that Dalriada recorded against Campbell College. Billy Brown, Aaron McBride, Philip Andrews, Houston Saunderson, Jamie Johnston and the rest of their Larne Grammar School team mates will have to be at their best if they are to halt is talented Dalriada team. Roger Bonnar and Jonny McLaughlin had outstanding games for the Ballymoney team against Campbell. They were well supported by Ben Henderson Jonny McMullan and Rhys McAuley.. A repeat performance on Saturday should see the Dalriada team safely through this game on Saturday
