Despite the onset of a well-deserved half term holiday break for teachers and pupils there are still quite a number of rugby fixtures involving schools from Ulster scheduled to take place on Saturday 23rd October.
The “Match of the Day” will be played at Osborne Park when Methodist College travel to play Royal Belfast Academical Institution at Osborne Park. Both teams have been playing well and achieving positive results in recent weeks and both teams will be going all out for a win in this Belfast derby game on Saturday. The Belfast Inst team will be without Ben Alexander and Michael Kilpatrick who have been called into Irish Schools’ U18 and Ireland U19 Development squads for a screening camp in Dublin. However, this will not hinder the status of the game for the Belfast Inst team. They can still upon players of the calibre of Paddy Bell, Conor Neill, Michael Mairs, Matthew McGuigan and Nathan Dougan to give a good account of themselves. The Methody team will look to their dynamic captain, Dan Kerr, as well as the skilful Matthew McFaul to see them through this tough test of their credentials. They had a morale boosting victory against a Rodney O’Donnell coached St Mary’s College team in their last game. They will have players due to be in Dublin with the Irish Schools’ screening camp but can call in experienced squad members to replace them. This game has all the makings of being a very interesting encounter.
The Ballyclare High School team has gone through the season undefeated, including games on their recent Summer Tour to New Zealand and the Cook Islands. They have accounted for some of the biggest names in the local schools’ game and will hope to add one more to the list when they play Wallace High School on Saturday. Both teams are loaded with players who are on top of their game at the moment. The Ballyclare team will look to players such their hard working hooker, Marc Logan, their skilful out half, Jonny Holmes, their industrious scrum half, Jack Irvine, and their try scoring winger, Peter Ferguson, to assist them in withstanding the challenge offered by the Wallace team. The Lisburn team will hope that players such as David Scott, Jordan Heatley, Patrick Hylands, Simon Gilmore and Daniel Henry can help them return from the Rashee Road venue with a positive result under their belts.
Ballymena Academy recorded an impressive win in their last game against Belfast Royal Academy despite losing a number of key players to injury. They would welcome the return to action of Callum Patterson but in players such as Caleb Morrison, Peter Wallace, George Hargy and Tim Patton they have talent to spare. The Regent team has struggled to find consistency in their recent games but they have their own match winners in players such as Steven Colwell, Nathan Burns and Jonny Quigg. Ballymena will need to respect the challenge this Regent team will offer!
Royal School, Armagh will host St Gerard’s College from Bray in a game which sees two former Irish Internationals in coaching roles. Kenny Hooks is in charge of the RS Armagh team while that doyen of Irish out halves, Tony Ward, is in charge of the St Gerard’s team. Both teams will lose players to the Irish screening camps but, despite this, both teams will be well able to serve up an attractive brand of schoolboy rugby. The RS Armagh team has been well served in recent games by the performances of players such as Neil Faloon, Harry Boyd and Matthew Clarke. These players, as well as their Armagh team mates, will expect a severe test from the St Gerard’s team on Saturday.
Down High School pushed RBAI for a long period of time in their last game before losing out in the final quarter. With players such as Aaron Cairns, Ben Hale, Justin Rea and Stuart Orr available for selection in their home game against Lurgan College on Saturday, the Down team will be hopeful of a victory in this game. However, the Lurgan team has been buoyed by their recent win and will hope that players such as Josh McKay, Greg Lyness, Stephen Buckley and Nicky Moore can encourage their team mates to give the Down team a severe test in the course of the game.
Campbell College, fresh from their successful trip to the St Joseph’s College, Ipswich, Rugby Festival last weekend, host a very determined Bangor Grammar School team at Fox’s Field. The home team will be without Charles Gallagher who is due to be at the Irish U19 Screening Camp along with players such as John Creighton who could be at the Irish Schools’ camp. The Bangor team is hard to score against and players such as Craig Harper, Karl Lamont and Stuart McCloskey will work hard to expose any weaknesses in the Campbell defence. This could be an interesting game!
Belfast High School has some very talented players to call upon but the team has struggled to find consistency in the course of the season, so far! Ryan McGonigle and Jake Toan can cause problems for any opposition and will hope to do so on Saturday when they entertain Friends’ School. The Friends’ team will hope to have Jonny Mac Corkell back from injury and if their pack can provide the quality ball required for the backs, the Friends’ team could have too much power and pace in their backline. Michael Cochrane, Paddy Pringle, Rory McIvor, Paul Anderson and Desi Eastwood are all players to look out for!
Banbridge Academy will look to get back to winning ways when they host Coleraine AI on Saturday. The Banbridge team is capable of scoring tries from any position and in players such as Tom Jess, Matthew Kerr, Andrew McConnell and Nathan McDonald they will have a desire to do so against the Coleraine AI team. The Coleraine team will hope that their experienced half back partnership of Paddy Farrell and Michael Poskitt guide them safely through this tricky encounter.
Rainey Endowed School will play an Omagh Academy team that put on a very positive performance in their last outing against Friends’ School but lost out by one score in a high scoring game. Harry Gibson, with a hat trick of tries, was the main attacking force for the Omagh Academy team and he was well supported by Ashley McIlwaine and Lee Warnock. The Rainey defence will need to pay attention to these players. Rainey had a morale boosting victory against a Belfast Inst “Select” xv and had good performances from Luke Steele and Damien McMurray. They will need more of the same against the Omagh team.
Belfast Royal Academy should be at full strength when they host the RS Dungannon team at Roughfort. Having lost last weekend to Ballymena Academy, the BRA team will be hoping to get back into winning form. Players such as Ryan Clarke, Eoin Devlin, Matthew Robinson and Mark Wylie are potent attacking players with the ball in hand. The Academy team will want to get quality ball for these players to use! RS Dungannon have been on a recent run of good form despite a number of regular players being unavailable through injury. They will be without the services of Peter Nelson who will be at the Ireland U19 Development Screening camp in Dublin. However, Derek Martin, Gary Wong, Andrew Clingan and their RS Dungannon team mates will be hoping to give a good account of themselves against the Belfast Royal Academy team.
Cambridge House will be in confident mood when they entertain Grosvenor Grammar School having defeated Antrim Grammar School as well as Carrickfergus Grammar School in recent games. Matthew Harkness, Joshua Whann and Timmy Small have played well in these games and will look to build on their recent successes when the meet the Grosvenor team. The Grosvenor team out muscled a full strength Sullivan Upper team in their last outing and will have a great desire to continue in a similar vein against the Cambridge House team. Mark Foster, Scott Irvine and Peter Davidson are all influential players for the Grosvenor Grammar School team. Cambridge House will need to monitor them closely!
Spectators will be made welcome at all these games which are scheduled to kick off at 10-30am. Supporters intending to watch these games should check with the schools concerned re kick off times.
Larne Grammar School 1st and 2ndxv’s set off on Tuesday 19th October for a three match tour to British Columbia in Canada. There has been a strong link with rugby in Ulster and the British Columbia region over the years with both schools and clubs touring in that beautiful part of Canada. The Larne Grammar School team toured BC three years ago and was followed by Friends’ School last year. The mighty King’s Scholars Rugby Club toured in 1969, 1975 and 1980 on three very successful tours meeting up with North of Ireland RFC in 1980 who were on tour at the same time. This tour will be a great experience for the Larne Grammar School players who will play against the Hugh McRoberts School in Vanvouver on 21st October, move to Vancouver Island where they play Cowichan RFC U18’s on 24th and finally return to Vancouver where they will play Capilano RFC U18’s on the 27th October. The Larne Grammar School tour party arrive back on Friday 29th October.
