There were a number of games planned for the week end of Saturday 5th January but quite a few fell victims to the poor weather conditions.
Early in the New Year Limavady GS played against a very physical Sligo GS team. Despite missing six of their starting xv, including four from the pack, Limavady won the game by 29-13.
Five first half tries from wingers Joe O’Hara and Johnny King, who scored two, Mark O’Connor and Andrew Moore along with two conversions from O’Connor saw Limavady well in control by 29-6 at half time.
Coach Stephen Barr took the opportunity to use the remainder of his senior squad in the second half of the game in preparation for their forthcoming Northern Bank Ulster Schools’ Cup Round 2 game with Lurgan College.
This team held out until the last minute of the game when Sligo GS went over in the corner for a converted try to leave the home team deserved
29-13 winners.
Down HS and Banbridge Academy played in blizzard conditions at Ballynahinch RFC on Thursday 3rd January. Both teams had to work hard in very difficult conditions and it was Banbridge Academy who eventually won by 12-0. Both teams deserve full credit for the effort they put into this game.
Limavady were due to travel to play Friends’ School on Friday 4th but the game was cancelled due to the unplayable conditions in Lisburn leaving both teams without a warm up game prior to next weeks Northern Bank Ulster Schools’ 2nd Round Cup matches.
Coleraine AI had to make a difficult journey to Larne to play against Larne GS on Saturday 5th. The Coleraine team had played a three 20 minute controlled match against RS Dungannon during the week and won this by six tries to nil.
The team was at full strength for the Larne game but they knew that the Larne team would provide difficult opposition.
In a game which was dominated by a strong cross field wind as well as cold overhead conditions, Larne GS eventually won by 3-0 thanks to a Lee Miller second half penalty. Both teams had opportunities to score tries but a mixture of poor decision making and difficult conditions meant that the sizeable crowd had little to enthuse about in terms of free flowing rugby.
However, Larne were delighted with their victory which will put them in the favourite’s seat for next week’s glamour clash with Grosvenor GS in the Northern Bank Ulster Schools’ Cup Round 2 match.
Belfast Royal Academy hosted Belvedere College at Roughfort but lost heavily to a big Belvedere team.
Methodist College travelled to Dublin to play Leinster giants Blackrock College in their annual New Year fixture. The Dublin team had to work hard to defeat a depleted Methody team by 32-14.
R S Armagh entertained Carrickfergus GS and, despite the recent good form shown by the Carrickfergus boys, the home team ran out comfortable 31-14 winners. Chris Colvin continued his recent good form by scoring the RS Armagh first try. Neal Mc Gowan, Paul Taylor, Peter Starrett and David Bowe all followed suit to scored tries with Richard Reaney kicking three conversions. The Carrickfergus GS team never gave up and scored two converted tries in the course of the game. RS Armagh 2ndxv recorded a comfortable 48-7 win over their Carrickfergus GS counterparts.
Wallace HS travelled to play RS Dungannon on the excellent
WK Armstrong pitch. The Lisburn team was in the lead by 7-3 at half time. Their second half performance was inspired by Nevin Spence and Conor Mc Bride and eventually Wallace won by 35-8.
Foyle and Londonderry College against Bangor GS, Rainey ES against Ballyclare HS, Regent House against Omagh Academy, Sullivan Upper against Ballymena Academy and Grosvenor GS against Belfast HS were all fixtures which fell foul of the adverse weather conditions.