Portadown College toured in the Barcelona area with their senior squads. The teams recorded handsome victories over San Cugat U16 and U18’s in their first games.They had the opportunity to play on the marvellous plastic surface that the San Cugat teams use, a pitch well known to some Ulster Schools teams with RBAI, Friends’ School, RS Dungannon and Grosvenor GS all having played on it in recent seasons. The 2nd xv recorded a win against San Boiana U16’s and the tour finished with a convincing win for the College 1st xv against Pablo Nou U18’s. The players and management took the opportunity to tour the famous Nou Camp Stadium as well as visiting the Port Aventura Waterpark.

Friends’ School travelled to Antrim on Saturday on the back of good recent performances. Unfortunately, the Lisburn team was unable to keep their recent good form going and were comprehensively beaten by 24-10 by a very determined Antrim team.

Ballymena Academy followed up their recent 28-5 victory over Leinster Schools’ Cup holders St Michael’s College with a comprehensive victory over Belfast HS. Centre Kyle Moore used the game to score five tries in a man of the match performance foe the Academy team.

RS Dungannon travelled to Bangor GS with both teams having experienced difficulties in getting results in the course of the season. Bangor GS were comfortable 18-0 leaders going into the last few minutes. Ed McCusker, Chris Hamilton and Philip White had all scored tries with Peter Wilson kicking a penalty. The RS Dungannon visitors displayed a tremendously positive attitude throughout the game and scored two converted tries in the last five minutes to leave the home team as relieved 18-14 winners at the final whistle.

Banbridge Academy played Campbell College in Banbridge. The Banbridge team made their Belfast visitors work hard for their 22-12 win. Campbell College scored through Matthew Armstrong with two tries and Andrew Dickson with one try. James McKinney kicked two conversions and one penalty. In return, Lloyd Mc Donald scored a try which he converted as well as kicking a penalty for the home team.

Coleraine AI entertained Methodist College and in an entertaining game won through by 14-12. Northern Bank Ulster Schools’ U19 player Jonny Shields was in outstanding form for the home team who scored a try through winger Alan Gourley which was converted by Michael Griffith to give the Coleraine team a 7-0 half time lead. In the second half Methody came back strongly with tries from Northern Bank Ulster Schools’ U18 players Niall Annett and Michael Allen. Paddy Robinson kicked a conversion to leave Methody 12-7 ahead going into the closing stages of the game. However, with a vocal support behind them the Coleraine team found the energy to enable prop David Lennox to blast his way over for a try which was converted by Michael Griffith to leave the home team as deserved 14-12 winners at the end of the game.

Dalriada played Carrickfergus GS at St James’s Road. The difficult weather conditions impacted on both teams and in a dull first half neither team really looked like scoring a try. Both sides exchanged penalties to leave the score at 3-3 at half time. In the second half the Carrick team started to get more go forward ball allowing their talented backline to create some space. The visitors scored tries through Kyle Jordan, Ricky Moore and Adam Moore. Ricky Moore also kicked one conversion as well as another penalty to leave the Carrickfergus team 18-3 winners.

Down HS entertained Regent House with the Newtownards team only winning the game outright in the final few minutes. The loss of scrum half Jonathan Patterson 25 minutes into the game had an impact on the visitors. With the score at 5-5 at half time, both teams had the opportunity to score more tries in the second half. Regent added to Paul Johnston’s first half try with further tries from Matthew Whiteside and Neil Armstrong. Armstrong added two conversions ensuring a 19-12 win for the visitors.

Foyle and Londonderry College had a comfortable 17-0 win against a very determined Ballyclare HS team. For the home team scrum half Andrew Semple had another influential game.

Larne GS and Grosvenor GS played out a close fought game in Larne. Ryan Maybin, Rhys Thomas and Nathan Barry all scored tries for the home team with Lee Millar adding one conversion. For the visitors Scott Martin kicked a penalty with last season’s Irish Schools’ winger Mark Atkinson scoring a try. Grosvenor will be disappointed they did not score any other points but Larne controlled the game sufficiently well to ensure victory.

Rainey ES entertained a Belfast Royal Academy team that was determined to run the ball at every opportunity. The visitors scored tries through Blair Nangle, Robbie Creighton and Craig Gilroy. Robbie Huddleston added two conversions as well as a penalty. The home team could only manage one penalty in reply leaving the visiting BRA team as comfortable 22-3 winners.

RS Armagh entertained Dublin HS in a game which was delayed because of poor weather conditions. The Armagh boys put all this behind them to record an excellent 17-5 victory over their Dublin visitors.

Sullivan Upper overcame their recent defeat to Regent House with a comprehensive 45-3 win over Portadown College. The visitors played their part in what was an entertaining game and defended well for long periods of the game. However, the Sullivan pack laid the foundations for their win allowing scrum half Jamie Carr to dictate the course of the game. Jonathan Herron had an excellent game in the Sullivan second row and he received great assistance from his back row.

Wallace HS got back to winning ways and with Nevin Spence controlling the game in midfield they recorded an impressive 38-0 win over a very spirited Omagh Academy team.

RBAI hosted Portora RS and recorded an impressive 31-0 win against the Enniskillen boys. Andrew Bryans, Fiyin Olyisade and Matthew Kilpatrick impressed for the Belfast team with Paul Galbraith and Ashley Finlay giving good performances for the visitors.