Following the latest round of fixtures, the race for top spot in Boys Under 18 Division 1 was blown wide open last weekend with three teams now locked on 10-points after four matches.
Last weekend also saw the opening round of fixtures in the Girls Youth Leagues with several matches taking place across the province.
The stand-out fixture in Under 18 Boys league was the clash of Dungannon and Virginia at Stevenson Park.
A great rivalry has been built up between the two over the last number of years, and on Saturday morning they served up another fiercely competitive encounter.
Dungannon took the lead as early as the 5th minute when centre Adam Nixon made a strong run through the heart of the visitor’s defence to hand his team an early lead.
The home team continued to dominate proceedings, but some stout defending from the visitors meant that Dungannon were unable to add to their early try.
A Paul lynch penalty got Virginia off the mark in the 15th minute, and four minutes later lynch was successful from the tee again as he converted a Shane Swarres try.
The visitors were full value for their 5-10 lead and by the half hour mark, they had pushed their lead to 17-points thanks to a try from Brian McCormick and a second for Swarres.
Dungannon gave themselves some hope when flanker Alexander Courtney raced clear of the Virginia defence to go in for a try to cut the Dungannon arrears to 12-points; 10-22.
Courtney’s try appeared to give Dungannon the shot in the arm they badly needed, and minutes after the restart, prop Bence Balajti managed to ground the ball despite the close attention of the Virginia defence.
Andrew Lyttle’s conversion made it a 5-point game and suddenly, all the momentum was with Dungannon.
But the pendulum swung back in Virginia’s favour midway through the second half when Thomas Courtney was yellow carded for a deliberate knock-on and Lyttle was dismissed for a high tackle.
Virginia wasted no time in making their numerical advantage count and added to their total through Aaron Gargan, Alex Dowd and a second from McCormick made the final score 17-39 in the visitor’s favour.
The result leaves both teams locked on 10-points each, and after squeaking past City of Armagh at the Palace Grounds, they are joined there by Letterkenny.
Both sides went over for five tries each, but a Matthew Farrell penalty with the last kick of the game handed victory to Letterkenny on a 33-36 scoreline.
Farrell also contributed a try and four conversions to his sides total.
In the remaining Division 1 game, Banbridge had a narrow 27-24 win over Coleraine ta Rugby Avenue.
In Under 16 Division 1 East, Ballymoney edged neighbours Ballymena following a 22-20 win at Kilraughts Road. The result leaves both teams tied at the top of the division on 10-points.
City of Armagh sit top of Under 14 Division 1 West after last Saturday’s 41-5 win over Letterkenny at the Palace Grounds.
Hot on their heels are Strabane who remain unbeaten following a 40-0 win over Monaghan. The Tyrone team sit one-point behind City of Armagh but have played one game less.
On Sunday the Girls Age Grade season kicked off with a number of games taking place across all three age-groups.
In the Under 18 Legaue, Ballymena/Cooke were 50-10 winners over Virginia while Malone travelled to Kilraughts Road to take on Ballymoney/BHSFP/Coleraine/Limavady and recorded a 40-0 win.
Enniskillen pipped City of Derry/Omagh in the Under 16 West League while Ards and Enniskillen registered wins over Instonians/Larne/Malone/Ophir and City of Derry/Strabane/Rainey respectively in the Under 14 league.