There were a number of games involving schools from Ulster played in the lead up to Christmas Day.
The Ballymena Academy 1st and 2ndxv squads set of on Thursday 16th December on a short tour to the Enfield Hotel, Johnstown to make use of the rugby facilities available at the hotel as well as play games against Clongowes Wood College 2ndxv and St Mary’s College 1stxv. On Thursday evening, the 2nd XV made the short journey for a match against Clongowes Wood College 2nd XV. The game was played under lights on the school’s impressive 3G surface and the dry conditions resulted in a fast and furious tempo throughout. Ballymena struggled to contain the dynamic and well-drilled Dublin side and can have no complaints with the final score of 52-17. After a very disappointing start to the game, Ballymena’s 2nd XV rallied well in the second half with two tries from Peter Hayes and a fine solo effort from Stephen Johnston.
The following evening saw the 1st XV lock horns with St. Mary’s College. The Dublin school are highly fancied to perform well in the Leinster Schools’ Cup this season and are captained by Irish Schools’ forward Jerry Sexton, brother of Ireland out-half Jonathan Sexton. With the freezing temperatures eliminating the prospect of the game going ahead on grass, it was played at University College Dublin’s Belfield grounds, this time on a 4G surface.
Ballymena Academy started strongly and threatened the St. Mary’s line on several occasions in the first fifteen minutes. Darren Geddis went close but narrowly failed to re-gather a chip over the last defender. The Ballymena team was dealt a sucker punch after 20 minutes when a St. Mary’s clearance bounced back into the hands of their chasing winger who linked inside to find support before the ball was moved wide for a try in the corner. The conversion attempt was successful and a St. Mary’s penalty two minutes after the restart meant that Ballymena Academy found themselves 10-0 down.
Callum Patterson hit the upright with a penalty attempt just before the interval but the St. Mary’s out half made no mistake at the start of the second half to stretch the lead to 13-0. Ten minutes into the second half, Ballymena Academy deservedly opened their account for the evening when Caleb Morrison showed excellent footwork and pace to finish with an excellent individual try underneath the St Mary’s College posts. Callum Patterson added the conversion to reduce the arrears to 13-7.
However, five minutes later, a neck injury to the St. Mary’s College out-half meant that the game had to be stopped for an extended period of time and, with the medical team carrying out their work on the field of play, a decision was taken that it was in the best interests of both sets of players to call a halt to proceedings with twenty minutes remaining on the clock.
Thankfully news came through later in the evening that the injured player had not sustained any serious injuries and both teams will, no doubt, be keen to lock horns again in the near future.
Prior to the onset of the most recent extreme weather conditions, the RS Armagh senior squads travelled to Rome to play two games. In the first of their tour matches the RS Armagh team played the FIR Roma Academia team, a semi- professional group of players from the Eternal City, brought together under the jurisdiction of the Italian Rugby Federation. The RS Armagh team lost this game by 19-7 with No 8, Daryl Morton, scoring the try which was converted by Harry Boyd. The second game of the RS Armagh tour was played against the Unione Rugby Capitolina U19 team. The RS Armagh team recovered from the disappointment of losing their first game to record a well-deserved 29-7 victory in this game. James Hanna, Robbie Magowan, Timmy McNeice and Ethan Gilkinson all scored tries with Harry Boyd contributing three conversions as well as penalty against the Capitolina opposition. The RS Armagh 2nd xv won both their tour games. They defeated a CUS Roma Rugby team by 31-14 and went on to beat a Rugby Frascati team by 7-5.
Methodist College continued their successful tour to Spain and Portugal with another well-deserved win in their second tour game. Having defeated the very talented Spanish U18 team in Vigo at the weekend, the squad moved a short distance over the border to the Portuguese town of Arcos de Valdevez where they played against the CRAV U19 team. This proved to be a very physical game but the Methodist College team came through with a 33-3 victory. All 25 members of the tour squad played at some stage of the game. The Methody team scored tries through Adam Berry, Phil Martin, Ryan Martin, Peter Logan and Ross Kane. Mark Gribben capped a fine personal display by adding four conversions. Rory Winters and James Harrison were the outstanding forwards on view ensuring a good supply of quality ball which was used effectively by the Methodist College backs.
The Cambridge House squad returned safely from a recent to Italy where they played two games in Rome. The Cambridge House boys lost their first game but more than made up for this defeat with a handsome win in their second game.
