Methody Take Honours at Blackrock Festival

Methodist College, Campbell College and Royal Belfast Academical Institution all did the cause of Ulster Schools’ rugby proud when they were invited to take part in the prestigious Blackrock College 150 Year Anniversary Festival of Rugby over the weekend.

It was the Methodist College team that was particularly impressive in the group stage of the Festival. The Methody boys played in Group C with Ivybridge School, PBC, Cork, St Mary’s College and Clongowes Wood College.

The Methody team defeated Ivybridge 7-5, St Mary’s 10-0, and PBC, Cork 15-0. In their final group game against Clongowes Wood College, the Methody team led by 3-0 until the last seconds of the game when they had a clearance kick charged down. As a result of this charge down, the Clongowes team scored a try to win the group game by 5-3. However, Methody had done enough to qualify for the main competition finals.

In this competition the Methody boys defeated Sedbergh School by 7-0, St Michael’s College by 5-3 and the host school, Blackrock College by 7-3. This ensured a final spot against Clongowes Wood College. The Methodist College team made sure that there was no repeat of the group stage result and went on to win the tournament by defeating Clongowes Wood College by 3-0 in the final.
Royal Belfast Academical Institution travelled to the Blackrock Festival with a depleted squad due to the half term holiday. In their group games they were defeated narrowly by Wellington College, St Munchin’s College, Castleknock College and Blackrock College.

In their final games the Inst team defeated Campbell College by 13-0 and Rockwell College by 8-5 before losing out to Blackrock College by 12-7.

An injury hit Campbell College team travelled to the Blackrock Festival to find themselves in the same group as Colston’s School, Crescent College, St Michael’s College and Belvedere College. The Campbell team lost to Colston’s by 5-0, to Crescent by 3-0, to St Michael’s by 15-0 and to Belvedere by 5-0. The team was also defeated by Belfast Inst, Blackrock College and Rockwell College, in the final series of games of the Festival.