METHODIST COLLEGE 15 ROCKWELL COLLEGE 13
Methody played a recent game against Rockwell College and hung on to win a close encounter by 15-13. The game was a personal triumph for the talented Methody outhalf, Josh Bingham, who scored two tries and a conversion to give his team a 12-0 first half lead.
The Munster school mounted a challenge to the dominance of the Methody team and took a 12-13 lead in the course of the second half. However, it was that man, Bingham, who sealed the game for ...
METHODIST COLLEGE 15 ROCKWELL COLLEGE 13 Methody played a recent game against Rockwell College and hung on to win a close encounter by 15-13. The game was a personal triumph for the talented Methody outhalf, Josh Bingham, who scored two tries and a conversion to give his team a 12-0 first half lead. The Munster school mounted a challenge to the dominance of the Methody team and took a 12-13 lead in the course of the second half. However, it was that man, Bingham, who sealed the game for the Belfast boys with a well struck penalty in the closing stages of the game. ANTRIM GS 5 WELLINGTON COLLEGE 26 Antrim Grammar and Wellington College met in a midweek fixture in Antrim with the visitors coming away with a 26-5 win. Five minutes into the game, Ethan Sweeney scored an intercept try for Wellington before Andy Hanna converted his try for a 0-12 lead. The hosts responded positively and came close to scoring on a number of occasions but the score stayed at 0-12 until the interval. The second half saw Antrim dig deep in terms of defence to keep their line intact but Matthew Elliott touched down for a try, following a great exchange of passes between his forwards and backs. Hanna converted to increase the advantage to 0-19. Antrim replied with an excellent unconverted try from their talented winger, Adam Johnston, to reduce the arrears to 19-5 with fifteen minutes to go. However, Wellington sealed the result when Josh Garnham scored a converted try for a final score of 5-26. RAINEY ENDOWED 52 CAMBRIDGE HOUSE 17 Rainey Endowed fielded an 'A' XV against Cambridge House when the two teams met in a midweek fixture but still emerged as 52-17 winners. Andrew Conway scored a hat trick of tries for the Magherafelt team with Eunan Shaw, Rory Nicholl, Mark Rooney, Andrew Nicholl and Kieran Lynch all touching down once each. Lynch added six conversions. METHODIST COLLEGE 29 SULLIVAN UPPER 14 The 'Match of the Day' on Saturday 16th November was the clash at Pirrie Park where Methody hosted the very talented Sullivan Upper team. Methody won when the teams met earlier in the season when both teams were missing players on inter-provincial duty. Both teams were close to full strength in this fixture and the hosts had to work hard before emerging as 29-14 winners. The home team dominated proceedings in the first half and had built up a 22-0 lead by the interval. The Methody scrum was dominant and their back row trio won the battle at the break down. This provided the opportunity for the talented Methody back division to test the defence and Conor McKee scored the first try of the game after just three minutes. A McKee offload sent Saul Herdman over for an unconverted try after 11 minutes before Conor Kelly got on the scoresheet with another five pointer. The score became 22-0 just before the break when Kelly touched down for his second try, which Josh Bingham converted, to give Methody a comfortable half time lead. A few well-chosen words at the break from the Sullivan Upper coach, Willie Anderson, seemed to galvanise his team. They started the second half by taking advantage of poor Methody play when David McMaster touched down for a try less than a minute after the restart. Mark Adair converted the try to reduce the arrears to 22-7. Ross Todd, Dave Cave, Fergus Jemphrey and Josh Davidson got through an immense amount of work in the Sullivan pack as they asked questions of the home defence. The Holywood school were rewarded for their second half endeavours when Chris Griffiths crashed over for a try with just ten minutes remaining. Adair added the extras to take the score to 22-14. Shortly after this Josh Davidson seemed to have scored a third Sullivan try only to knock the ball on in-goal. Close to the end of the game and, on a rare second half visit to the opposition 22m area, the Methody pack won good ball from a lineout and Michael Lagan crashed over for Bingham to convert. That earned a 29-14 victory. Meanwhile, on the back pitch at Pirrie Park the Methodist College 2nd XV recorded a fine 29-7 victory against Belfast Metropolitan College. A second Sullivan Upper team travelled to play Regent House and recorded a hard earned, but deserved, 17-20 win. COLERAINE AI 48 PORTORA RS 3 Coleraine Academical Institution, having drawn 0-0 in a midweek game with Limavady Grammar, continued their recent good run of form with an excellent 48-3 home win over Portora Royal School. Playing into the elements in the first half, Coleraine AI struck early on with an excellent try from centre, and captain, Conor Shiels. The same player converted to give his side a 7-0 lead. On nine minutes Coleraine AI struck again when surging runs from prop, Danny McAllister, and second row, Thomas Pethick, led to quick rucks which released 1st XV debutant, Niall Cameron, to out-pace the covering defence to score in the corner. A few minutes later the hosts scored again when Shiels made another excellent break in midfield and timed his pass perfectly to release wing Brad Dempster for a try. On a rare visit into opposition territory, Portora got their only score of the game with a well struck penalty to reduce the arrears to 17-3 after 18 minutes. Two minutes later Shiels, Danny McAllister and Dempster combined to allow hooker Kieran Burns to force his way over. The score read 22-3 at the break. Two minutes after the restart, neat inter-play from Joel Stanbridge, Thomas Pethick and Ally Corbett fed Shiels who raced over. He also converted for a 29-3 lead. Three minutes later Coleraine scored a carbon copy of their previous try, except this time Ollie McDowell was to the fore, when Shield crossed the whitewash again. Midway through the second half Pethick capped an excellent performance when he scored a try after some excellent work by his pack to put the hosts 41-3 up. Coleraine AI completed their scoring spree when centre Mark Gordon skipped past several would be tacklers to score under the posts. Shiels converted to complete the 48-3 rout. GROSVENOR GS v CAMPBELL COLLEGE Grosvenor Grammar hosted a bigger and stronger Campbell College team that had last season's Ireland Schools' winger, Jack Owens, back in harness for the first time this season. Despite the hard work of the Grosvenor GS team, with players such as Sam Purdon standing out, Campbell won by some 70 points. RS DUNGANNON 24 RBAI 24 Royal School Dungannon played a Royal Belfast Academical Institution 'Select' XV in a game that fished in a 24-24 draw. Dungannon found themselves trailing by 0-17 after only ten minutes of the game when the Belfast Inst team scored two converted tries and a penalty. The home team then responded with a try from John Buckley which was converted by Jack Milligan to leave the Belfast Inst team leading 7-17. A few minutes later Buckley created more havoc in the Inst defence when his offload sent Milligan over to convert his own try, thereby reducing the arrears to 14-17. Just before the half time whistle the home team took a 21-17 lead when Thomas Downing took advantage of good work from his fellow forwards and ran in for a converted try. The second half saw the Dungannon lead increase to 24-17 when Milligan hit a finely struck drop goal. Both teams were in attack mode but the defences held out. That was until the Belfast Inst team exploited a gap and registered a late converted try to leave the final score as a 24-24 draw. BALLYCLARE HS 11 BANGOR GS 3 Ballyclare High School played a Bangor Grammar team missing a number of regular players and got back to winning ways with a 11-3 victory. Bangor took a 0-3 lead in the first half with a penalty but Ballyclare responded with an unconverted try to give them a 5-3 lead going into the break. Playing with the wind at their backs in the second half, Ballyclare controlled territory and possession, allowing Mattie McDowell to kick two second half penalties to secure the win. BANBRIDGE ACADEMY 0 BELFAST HS 41 Banbridge Academy hosted the high-flying Belfast High School team and found themselves losing the game  0-41. The Belfast HS team scored seven tries, three of which were converted. OMAGH ACADEMY WALES TOUR Omagh Academy took the opportunity to travel to Wales to play two games and then attend the Wales v Argentina game at the Millennium Stadium. In their first game the team lost by 20-7 against a very physical YGG Cymer team with Stuart Ballantine scoring and converting the Omagh Academy try. The second tour game was played against Treorchy College, with Omagh putting in a fine display of attacking rugby to win the game by 5-17. This game featured a number of young 2nd XV players such as Stuart Young and Jonny Anderson, both of whom played well. Richard White scored a try following good work from Josh McKinley in the lineout. Ballantine converted the try to give his team a 0-7 lead, which became 0-12 when Jack Mitchell crashed through the defence. The home team scored an unconverted try at the start of the second half when their impressive No8 touched down. However, the tourists sealed their well-deserved 5-17 win when Scott Barr scored an unconverted try in the corner with just minutes remaining. WALLACE HS 19 RS ARMAGH 5 A less than full strength Royal School Armagh team travelled to play Wallace High School and lost the game by 19-5. Wallace took a 7-5 lead by half time with the RS Armagh try coming from Kyle Faloon. The Wallace try came with the last play of the first half from their impressive scrum half, Jonny Stewart, and was converted by Ryan Moore. The Wallace back row was dominant at the break down and provided quality possession from which the team scored two second half tries through Philip Hylands and Ben Finlay. Moore converted both. The Armagh pack, with Philip Matthews putting in a good performance, was dominant at the set piece in the course of the game. BRA 7 DOWN HS 39 Down High School travelled to play Belfast Royal Academy at Roughfort and came away with an impressive 7-39 victory. The home team took an early 7-0 lead with a converted try but from that stage on most of the game was controlled by Down HS. Patrick Wright kicked a penalty goal to reduce the arrears to 7-3, a scoreline which remained until half time. Playing with the wind in the second half, the visitors scored quickfire tries through Ricky Gill, Thomas McCavera and William Martin. Chris Gibson, playing at scrumhalf, was next to score a try, closely followed by Wright, who also added four conversions and a penalty, to leave the final score reading 7-39. ANTRIM GS 0 LURGAN COLLEGE 20 Lurgan College travelled to Antrim Grammar School and, following an entertaining game, came away with a 0-20 win. Both teams were looking to move the ball at every opportunity and it was the visiting school that scored the tries. Jordan McIlwaine opened the scoring with a try just one minute into the game, but resolute Antrim defending restricted further first half scores. Ten minutes into the second half, Mark McIlwaine converted a penalty kick and converted a Matthew Laird try to increase the lead to 0-15. A last minute unconverted try from the effervescent Lurgan College scrum half, Drew Davis, sealed the triumph. OTHER RESULTS Dalriada School hosted Larne Grammar School and recorded a comfortable 66-0 win. Portadown College hosted Cambridge House and won the game by 43-17.
METHODIST COLLEGE 15 ROCKWELL COLLEGE 13 Methody played a recent game against Rockwell College and hung on to win a close encounter by 15-13. The game was a personal triumph for the talented Methody outhalf, Josh Bingham, who scored two tries and a conversion to give his team a 12-0 first half lead. The Munster school mounted a challenge to the dominance of the Methody team and took a 12-13 lead in the course of the second half. However, it was that man, Bingham, who sealed the game for the Belfast boys with a well struck penalty in the closing stages of the game. ANTRIM GS 5 WELLINGTON COLLEGE 26 Antrim Grammar and Wellington College met in a midweek fixture in Antrim with the visitors coming away with a 26-5 win. Five minutes into the game, Ethan Sweeney scored an intercept try for Wellington before Andy Hanna converted his try for a 0-12 lead. The hosts responded positively and came close to scoring on a number of occasions but the score stayed at 0-12 until the interval. The second half saw Antrim dig deep in terms of defence to keep their line intact but Matthew Elliott touched down for a try, following a great exchange of passes between his forwards and backs. Hanna converted to increase the advantage to 0-19. Antrim replied with an excellent unconverted try from their talented winger, Adam Johnston, to reduce the arrears to 19-5 with fifteen minutes to go. However, Wellington sealed the result when Josh Garnham scored a converted try for a final score of 5-26. RAINEY ENDOWED 52 CAMBRIDGE HOUSE 17 Rainey Endowed fielded an 'A' XV against Cambridge House when the two teams met in a midweek fixture but still emerged as 52-17 winners. Andrew Conway scored a hat trick of tries for the Magherafelt team with Eunan Shaw, Rory Nicholl, Mark Rooney, Andrew Nicholl and Kieran Lynch all touching down once each. Lynch added six conversions. METHODIST COLLEGE 29 SULLIVAN UPPER 14 The 'Match of the Day' on Saturday 16th November was the clash at Pirrie Park where Methody hosted the very talented Sullivan Upper team. Methody won when the teams met earlier in the season when both teams were missing players on inter-provincial duty. Both teams were close to full strength in this fixture and the hosts had to work hard before emerging as 29-14 winners. The home team dominated proceedings in the first half and had built up a 22-0 lead by the interval. The Methody scrum was dominant and their back row trio won the battle at the break down. This provided the opportunity for the talented Methody back division to test the defence and Conor McKee scored the first try of the game after just three minutes. A McKee offload sent Saul Herdman over for an unconverted try after 11 minutes before Conor Kelly got on the scoresheet with another five pointer. The score became 22-0 just before the break when Kelly touched down for his second try, which Josh Bingham converted, to give Methody a comfortable half time lead. A few well-chosen words at the break from the Sullivan Upper coach, Willie Anderson, seemed to galvanise his team. They started the second half by taking advantage of poor Methody play when David McMaster touched down for a try less than a minute after the restart. Mark Adair converted the try to reduce the arrears to 22-7. Ross Todd, Dave Cave, Fergus Jemphrey and Josh Davidson got through an immense amount of work in the Sullivan pack as they asked questions of the home defence. The Holywood school were rewarded for their second half endeavours when Chris Griffiths crashed over for a try with just ten minutes remaining. Adair added the extras to take the score to 22-14. Shortly after this Josh Davidson seemed to have scored a third Sullivan try only to knock the ball on in-goal. Close to the end of the game and, on a rare second half visit to the opposition 22m area, the Methody pack won good ball from a lineout and Michael Lagan crashed over for Bingham to convert. That earned a 29-14 victory. Meanwhile, on the back pitch at Pirrie Park the Methodist College 2nd XV recorded a fine 29-7 victory against Belfast Metropolitan College. A second Sullivan Upper team travelled to play Regent House and recorded a hard earned, but deserved, 17-20 win. COLERAINE AI 48 PORTORA RS 3 Coleraine Academical Institution, having drawn 0-0 in a midweek game with Limavady Grammar, continued their recent good run of form with an excellent 48-3 home win over Portora Royal School. Playing into the elements in the first half, Coleraine AI struck early on with an excellent try from centre, and captain, Conor Shiels. The same player converted to give his side a 7-0 lead. On nine minutes Coleraine AI struck again when surging runs from prop, Danny McAllister, and second row, Thomas Pethick, led to quick rucks which released 1st XV debutant, Niall Cameron, to out-pace the covering defence to score in the corner. A few minutes later the hosts scored again when Shiels made another excellent break in midfield and timed his pass perfectly to release wing Brad Dempster for a try. On a rare visit into opposition territory, Portora got their only score of the game with a well struck penalty to reduce the arrears to 17-3 after 18 minutes. Two minutes later Shiels, Danny McAllister and Dempster combined to allow hooker Kieran Burns to force his way over. The score read 22-3 at the break. Two minutes after the restart, neat inter-play from Joel Stanbridge, Thomas Pethick and Ally Corbett fed Shiels who raced over. He also converted for a 29-3 lead. Three minutes later Coleraine scored a carbon copy of their previous try, except this time Ollie McDowell was to the fore, when Shield crossed the whitewash again. Midway through the second half Pethick capped an excellent performance when he scored a try after some excellent work by his pack to put the hosts 41-3 up. Coleraine AI completed their scoring spree when centre Mark Gordon skipped past several would be tacklers to score under the posts. Shiels converted to complete the 48-3 rout. GROSVENOR GS v CAMPBELL COLLEGE Grosvenor Grammar hosted a bigger and stronger Campbell College team that had last season's Ireland Schools' winger, Jack Owens, back in harness for the first time this season. Despite the hard work of the Grosvenor GS team, with players such as Sam Purdon standing out, Campbell won by some 70 points. RS DUNGANNON 24 RBAI 24 Royal School Dungannon played a Royal Belfast Academical Institution 'Select' XV in a game that fished in a 24-24 draw. Dungannon found themselves trailing by 0-17 after only ten minutes of the game when the Belfast Inst team scored two converted tries and a penalty. The home team then responded with a try from John Buckley which was converted by Jack Milligan to leave the Belfast Inst team leading 7-17. A few minutes later Buckley created more havoc in the Inst defence when his offload sent Milligan over to convert his own try, thereby reducing the arrears to 14-17. Just before the half time whistle the home team took a 21-17 lead when Thomas Downing took advantage of good work from his fellow forwards and ran in for a converted try. The second half saw the Dungannon lead increase to 24-17 when Milligan hit a finely struck drop goal. Both teams were in attack mode but the defences held out. That was until the Belfast Inst team exploited a gap and registered a late converted try to leave the final score as a 24-24 draw. BALLYCLARE HS 11 BANGOR GS 3 Ballyclare High School played a Bangor Grammar team missing a number of regular players and got back to winning ways with a 11-3 victory. Bangor took a 0-3 lead in the first half with a penalty but Ballyclare responded with an unconverted try to give them a 5-3 lead going into the break. Playing with the wind at their backs in the second half, Ballyclare controlled territory and possession, allowing Mattie McDowell to kick two second half penalties to secure the win. BANBRIDGE ACADEMY 0 BELFAST HS 41 Banbridge Academy hosted the high-flying Belfast High School team and found themselves losing the game  0-41. The Belfast HS team scored seven tries, three of which were converted. OMAGH ACADEMY WALES TOUR Omagh Academy took the opportunity to travel to Wales to play two games and then attend the Wales v Argentina game at the Millennium Stadium. In their first game the team lost by 20-7 against a very physical YGG Cymer team with Stuart Ballantine scoring and converting the Omagh Academy try. The second tour game was played against Treorchy College, with Omagh putting in a fine display of attacking rugby to win the game by 5-17. This game featured a number of young 2nd XV players such as Stuart Young and Jonny Anderson, both of whom played well. Richard White scored a try following good work from Josh McKinley in the lineout. Ballantine converted the try to give his team a 0-7 lead, which became 0-12 when Jack Mitchell crashed through the defence. The home team scored an unconverted try at the start of the second half when their impressive No8 touched down. However, the tourists sealed their well-deserved 5-17 win when Scott Barr scored an unconverted try in the corner with just minutes remaining. WALLACE HS 19 RS ARMAGH 5 A less than full strength Royal School Armagh team travelled to play Wallace High School and lost the game by 19-5. Wallace took a 7-5 lead by half time with the RS Armagh try coming from Kyle Faloon. The Wallace try came with the last play of the first half from their impressive scrum half, Jonny Stewart, and was converted by Ryan Moore. The Wallace back row was dominant at the break down and provided quality possession from which the team scored two second half tries through Philip Hylands and Ben Finlay. Moore converted both. The Armagh pack, with Philip Matthews putting in a good performance, was dominant at the set piece in the course of the game. BRA 7 DOWN HS 39 Down High School travelled to play Belfast Royal Academy at Roughfort and came away with an impressive 7-39 victory. The home team took an early 7-0 lead with a converted try but from that stage on most of the game was controlled by Down HS. Patrick Wright kicked a penalty goal to reduce the arrears to 7-3, a scoreline which remained until half time. Playing with the wind in the second half, the visitors scored quickfire tries through Ricky Gill, Thomas McCavera and William Martin. Chris Gibson, playing at scrumhalf, was next to score a try, closely followed by Wright, who also added four conversions and a penalty, to leave the final score reading 7-39. ANTRIM GS 0 LURGAN COLLEGE 20 Lurgan College travelled to Antrim Grammar School and, following an entertaining game, came away with a 0-20 win. Both teams were looking to move the ball at every opportunity and it was the visiting school that scored the tries. Jordan McIlwaine opened the scoring with a try just one minute into the game, but resolute Antrim defending restricted further first half scores. Ten minutes into the second half, Mark McIlwaine converted a penalty kick and converted a Matthew Laird try to increase the lead to 0-15. A last minute unconverted try from the effervescent Lurgan College scrum half, Drew Davis, sealed the triumph. OTHER RESULTS Dalriada School hosted Larne Grammar School and recorded a comfortable 66-0 win. Portadown College hosted Cambridge House and won the game by 43-17.