Ulster Schools are proudly sponsored by Northern Bank

Sullivan Upper, Portora Royal and Ballymena Academy flew the flag for Ulster Schools’ rugby with successful tours of New Zealand, Australia and South Africa respectively. All three squads gave good account of themselves on the field of play and were first class ambassadors for their schools and the province away from the games fields.

The Northern Bank Ulster Schools’ U18 and U19 squads have been busy preparing themselves for the forthcoming Inter Provincial games which are due to take place in October. Many of the players from these squads worked with Elite Player Development officer Neil Doak in Strength and Conditioning/Skill Development sessions during July. In August the squads got together with the respective coaching teams of Jonny Lowe and Brian Lesley (U18’s) and Terry Annesley and Chris Campbell (U19’s) for regular coaching sessions at the Mid Ulster Sports Arena in Cookstown.  The U18 squad had 23 players selected to attend the National Schoolboy U18 Camp held at Clongowes Wood College along with representatives from Munster and Leinster. This camp is used as an opportunity to screen potential Irish Schools’ players to play in the Six Nations Festival which is due to be played in Cork next Easter. The camp was organised by the IRFU and was staffed by Irish Schools’ coaches Peter Melia and Paul Barr. Assisting them was John Murphy, National Schools’ Development Officer, as well as Schools’ Selectors Barney Mc Gonigle, Stephen Graham, Lorcan Balfe and Tony Smyth. Provincial Coaches Noel Murray, Brian Leslie and Jonny Lowe were also involved as was National Elite Player Development Officer, Allen Clarke.

The Ulster players in attendance were Michael Allen, Mark O’Connor, Mark Atkinson, Patrick Irwin, Adam Mc Carthy, Nevin Spence, Luke Marshall, James Mc Kinney, Jason Bloomfield, Andrew Moore, Gareth Gracey, Mark Hood, Jonathan Simpson, Andrew Warwick, Ryan Maybin, Josh Christie, Matthew Elwood, Adam Stinson, David Mc Farland, John Burns, Blair Nangle, Paul Pritchard, Angus Warwicker.

Following this, the Ulster Schools’ U18 squad played the Ulster U19 team as a final preparation game for their short tour to play Lancashire Schools’ on Friday 24th August at Fylde RFC and Yorkshire Schools’ in Leeds on Saturday 25th August.

The Northern Bank Ulster Schools’ U19’s played against Rainey Old Boys’ U20’s and are due to play against the Ulster U19 team before the start of the new term. All in all a busy summer for quite a few of our schoolboy players and the staff involved with them. The teams will continue to work together during September in preparation for the very competitive Schools’ Inter Provincial series.

The dates for the Schools’ Inter Provincial games are:

Wednesday 3rd October      Leinster Schools’ v Munster Schools        Dublin
Wednesday 10th October    Connacht Schools’ v Leinster Schools      Athlone
Saturday 13th October        Munster Schools’ v Ulster Schools            Cork
Wednesday 17th October    Ulster Schools’ v Connacht Schools’         Omagh
Tuesday 23rd October         Connacht Schools’ v Munster Schools      Athlone
Wednesday 24th October   Ulster Schools’ v Leinster Schools’             Dungannon.

Final details (ie venues/kick off times) for all these games will be confirmed in September.