Tony Ward’s Ulster preview
While there will be plenty of serious challengers, it’s difficult to look beyond one of the two big Belfast teams lifting the Schools Cup
THE Danske Bank Ulster Schools Cup for 2018, as in Connacht, got under way earlier in December when Belfast High School and Carrickfergus Grammar School defeated Wellington College (22-12) and Strabane Academy (14-12) respectively.
Ulster Rugby has long employed the rolling draw system more recently adopted by the Leinster Schools Committee. That opening series effectively represented the first round of three, with the second played last weekend and the seven winners from Round 2 going on to join Bangor Grammar, Belfast Royal Academy (BRA), Coleraine Grammar, Dalriada School, Down High, Friends School, Lisburn, Omagh Academy Royal School Dungannon and Sullivan Upper in the third.
That round is scheduled to be completed on Saturday next, with the eight winners from Round 3 going on to join this year’s Big Eight: Ballyclare High, Ballymena Academy, Campbell College, Enniskillen Royal Grammar, Methodist College, Royal Belfast Academical Institution (RBAI), The Royal School Armagh and Wallace High in the last sixteen.
That will be on February 3 and it is then that the really serious business gets under way. The design, however, is good and, much like the FA Cup across the water, home advantage – particularly for the smaller schools – on Saturday mornings in December and January leads to giant-killing acts and many cages rattled at the very least.
A total of 17 schools have won the second oldest rugby competition at least once. Tommy Bowe’s old school Royal Armagh were the inaugural winners in 1876, with the three Belfast giants — Methody, Inst (RBAI) and Campbell — leading the way on 35, 32 and 23 titles each respectively. Twelve of the last 13 Kingspan showdowns have gone to these three, with only Ballymena in 2010 upsetting that near total domination this decade, most particularly by Methody and Inst. Since the turn of the century, between them they have taken every senior title bar two (Campbell winning in 2002 and 2011).
Methody’s three in a row between 2012 and 2014 has been equalled by RBAI’s successive wins from 2015 to 2017 as this year they look to make it four on the bounce. Add to that back-to-back Medallion (under-16) titles in 2014 and 2015 and the base for 2018 at Senior could hardly be any better.
Director of Rugby Dan Soper runs an extremely efficient system that everybody buys into at College Square and with representative players like David McCann, Angus Adair, Niall Armstrong and David Lyttle on board, added to emerging players Daniel Eakin, Jamie Mullan, Brad McNamara, Simon McMaster and Max Preston, the omens are again extremely good. Robin McIlveen has been laid low through to injury but hopes are high that he will be back as the competition proceeds.
Despite losing to their great rivals (16-5) in a first-term friendly, Methody have recently returned from a training camp in Portugal which finished off with a victory over the Portugese national under-19 team (31-19). They too can call on Ulster representative players in Ben Crangle, Thomas Armstrong (pictured right), Ethan McIlroy, Chris Larmour, Conor Kelly and Kevin McNaboe, with emerging players Samuel Bernard, Max Lyttle and Ben Gourley fitting in seamlessly. Recent wins over Rockwell, Campbell and Wallace suggest that a serious challenge from the Malone Road is imminent.
Campbell College, much like Clongowes, have a traditional habit of keeping pre-tournament heads well below the radar. John McKee captained the Danske Bank Ulster Schools team to interpro success. Where he leads, others follow and in fellow age-grade players such as Jamie Macartney, Ben Power, Oscar Yandell, Harry Owens and Oisin Kiernan — in addition to younger players John Gildea, John Harrison, Kieran Richardson, Rex Tinsley, Tobi Olaniyan, and most particularly out half Conor Rankin — the Fox’s Field larder is well stocked.
Add in former Ulster player and ex-Head Coach Neil Doak, now performing that role alongside Brian Robinson, and I think it fair to say the Belmont Road school is in pretty good rugby hands.
The Ballymena Academy class of 2018 includes a large number of Ulster players capped at under-18 and under-19 earlier in the school year. Because of that, the Co. Antrim team fielded significantly short in the first term. However, the return to action of talented players Bruce Houston, Ben Savage, Oisin Jordan, Tiarnan Martin, Mark Thompson and Stewart Moore has seen a sharp upturn in results. Injury looks like curtailing Thompson’s cup involvement and his loss will be significant, although the emergence of up-and-coming young players like Alex McKinney, Jordan Foster and Jonny Browne certainly helps. Centre Stewart Moore, much like Rankin at Campbell, is being monitored closely by Ulster Rugby. A recent victory at Campbell suggests a squad, despite Thompson’s unfortunate loss, well set for the challenges ahead.
The form of Wallace High has been a little topsy-turvy, given that they have made it through to four of the last six Medallion finals. Such consistency is a mirror image of the groundwork laid by St Michael’s College in Leinster at the comparable level. Back-to-back runners-up in 2015 and 2016 (both to Inst) should see the Lisburn School, with the nucleus of those squads, close to full age. Stand-out players include Sam and Josh Cardosi, Jamie Peters, Nathan Doak (son of Neil), Dylan Sedge and Jamie McKnight.
The Royal School Armagh, with Willie Faloon and Chris Parker in charge, has gone about its business in a very understated way. Having lost only four players from a strong 2017 squad and boosted by some members of last season’s Medallion winning team, they look in good nick ahead of the upcoming campaign. They are a free-running side playing an attractive brand of try-scoring rugby with players such as Zac Thompson, Benji Boyd, Charlie Worth, Nicolas Jennings, Archie McAlpine, Jonny Agnew and James Brown very much to the fore.
Enniskillen Royal Grammar School deservedly find themselves seeded among the top eight schools in the province this campaign. Rhys Botha is Head Coach of a formidable Enniskillen side that has lost precious few games this season. They are well organised defensively and astute tactically, with an outstanding No 8 and captain in Jack Rutledge. He is a skipper who leads from the front, whether with or without the ball. Ewan Haire, Reece Smyton, Alex Holder, Robbie Mills and Angus Keys are all members of a talented back division that has scored many tries over the course of the season to date.
Ballyclare High School is coached by former Ulster Schools and Blackrock College RFC centre, now Director of Rugby at Ballyclare, Michael OrchinMcKeever. In his time in Dublin, Mike was an outstanding coach of almost every team in St Gerard’s, from Standard Three in the Prep right up to the SCT, which he coached along with Eric Miller.
With Gary Clotworthy and former Ulster prop Ricky Lutton alongside at Ballyclare, it makes for a formidable coaching team. Quantity more than quality is the ongoing issue, with strength in depth always challenged at the Rashee Road school in the event of injury.
Josh Young is skipper this year and he leads a talented group with key players in Adam Clarke, James Nelson, Matthew McCullough, Ethan Crawford, Adam Campbell, Josh Cowan and Owen Lockhart. As he knows from his time in Gerard’s, if McKeever can keep a fully fit squad together then anything is possible.
The bottom line, of course, is the draw and its unpredictability. Even the very best need a rub of the green somewhere along the way.
Given the quality, and that all-important strength in depth at Inst and Methody, it is difficult looking beyond one of the big Belfast two over recent times, adding to that ever increasing total yet again.