First XV Rugby - Schools' Cup Match Report

Cambridge House v Ballyclare High School

Final Score: 7 - 27

On Saturday 2 nd February, Ballyclare High School 1 st XV squad travelled to Ballymena to face Cambridge House in the 3rd Round of the Northern Bank Schools' Cup. Cambridge House, having been on a good run of form all season, and after a convincing win over Friends School Lisburn in the pervious round, would have started the game as many people’s favourites.

The game, delayed following a postponement from the previous week, kicked off at 10.15. Despite the pitch being covered in snow, it was in a very good condition as members of Cambridge House had been out early on Saturday sweeping the lines, to allow the game to take place.

After a shaky opening minute, Ballyclare composed themselves. However, after a good crash up the middle, a strong tackle from the home side allowed the ball to be turned over, from which a rather disorganised Ballyclare defence could not regroup quickly enough, allowing Cambridge House’s star fullback to cut a super line and go in under the posts after only 3 minutes. This was converted leaving the score 7 - 0. Tribute must be paid to the Captain of Ballyclare High, Paddy Irvine, who didn’t allow his side’s heads to drop, as had been the case in previous games and Ballyclare came straight back at Cambridge House.

After sustained superb lineout and mauling work by the forwards, Ballyclare found themselves camped in the Cambridge 22, but were unable to break through the strong home defence due to some excellent work. However from good lineout ball, the pack mauled forwards, and centre Craig Andrew ran a perfect line to slice open the Cambridge defence and go in for a try, leaving Robert Smith to add two more points! Despite Ballyclare pressure the remainder of the half, it remained scoreless.

The second half was dominated by the Clare forward pack, which secured ball after ball and also gained many turnovers. This allowed Smith to play the territory came, which he did almost flawlessly, bouncing the ball into touch time after time and from the resulting lineouts the Clare side stole much opponent ball. Ballyclare however were still struggling to add to their points, with only a penalty from Smith to show for their domination, but thankfully the Ballyclare team remained patient.

After a chip deep into the Cambridge 22, a superb chase by flanker Jonny McKimm forced Cambridge to kick the ball out. From the 5m lineout, a move straight from the training ground worked excellently, allowing hooker Matthew Hopper to crash in at the corner flag, leaving the score 7 - 15.

Cambridge began to come back strongly, but Ballyclare continued to play territory, forcing Cambridge to run from deep. Winger Mark Weatherup caught hold of a player and with the help of Paddy Irvine bundled him down over his own try line, leaving Clare with a five metre scrum. The backs showed how capable they are from this position, stringing together an excellently executed move resulting in Andrews giving a wonderfully weighted floating pass for wing Jim Neill to score a great try! Smith added the conversion from wide leaving the score 7 - 22.

Cambridge House fought hard but the Clare defence stood firm. And after a good steal from 2nd row forward, Fabian Beickhorasani, he charged forward before offloading to partner Adam Neill, who surged deep into the twentytwo, taking contact but managing to offload to Smith who danced in through a few defenders over the line, to give Ballyclare a deserved lead 7 - 27.

Ballyclare again defended perfectly for the remaining few minutes, rounding off an excellent performance and booking an away tie with Rainey Endowed, with a place in the quarter final up for grabs!