RBAI...23 WALLACE HS...10: Days like these and you forget the AIL in December. It's firm ground and so RBAI demonstrated to a 10,000 crowd. With Ravenhill looking cheerful, Britain's Prince Andrew was at hand to present the cup to captain Ryan Caldwell after a match between two teams playing as only school sides can.
There was a lot of huff and puff, a handful of missed lineouts, miscued kicks and flankers piling in from the side. But no one comes to a schools' finals for perfect rugby, the rule of thumb on these occasions being if you carry the trophy out the gate, well that's perfect enough.
Wallace High School came into the game as firm underdogs and played the first half as if they owned the ground. In the first 35 minutes the minnows took charge of the ball as RBAI chased and harried up front but just couldn't get their hands near it. Unafraid to play a loose running game from the plentiful ball their pack was supplying, Wallace pressured when they could and took the game to the second most prolific winners of this trophy. Only Methodist College with 29 wins, to RBAI's 27, have won more Ulster Schools' Cups.
If any criticism could be levelled at Wallace for that peerless first half is that they went in at half-time only 7-3 ahead. That simply wasn't a good enough return against a team that had scored 107 points in their three previous rounds.
"I thought we threw it away in the first half," said RBAI full back Jonny Burgess. "We just couldn't get our hands on the ball. It was very worrying."
Just one try on 18 minutes was all Wallace had to show and it came from one of their imperfect lineout routines. Gathered five yards out and recycled after a short heave was knocked back, scrumhalf Neil Annett spotted the space between the forwards and dived. Although stopped short of the line by RBAI's defence, Annett's arm swung over for the touchdown, which outhalf Thomas Shorten converted.
On 24 minutes Johnny Watt kicked his first of two efforts for 7-3 before normal pressure resumed but when referee Marshall Kilgore blew for the break, RBAI were only four points adrift.
Wallace opened as they had finished the first half and five minutes in Shorten kicked his side to 10-3. It was a case then of whether Wallace could weather the building pressure as RBAI squeezed harder. In the end it was a 10-minute spell which finally flipped the match.
On 46 minutes a recycled ball from a ruck on the left side inside the 22 arrived at Watt. The outhalf unloaded to Burgess, whose angled run broke through the first grasping arm, his pace taking him around the full back for RBAI's first try. Watt's conversion took the scores to 10-10 before a penalty from him six minutes later brought his side into the lead for the first time in the game.
RBAI, at that point, had raised the tempo and before Wallace had time to settle into their first-half routine, Burgess again came into the attacking line from deep. A hoisted ball falling in front of the Wallace posts was chased by the full back. The ball hopped dreadfully for the Wallace defence and with Burgess steaming in, and the ball kicking back towards him, he gathered and his momentum took over.
With just 15 minutes remaining the Burgess score had broken the back of the game. Wallace, despite some neat tactical kicking from Shorten and ultimately fruitless work in the pack from Irish Schools' captain Christopher Henry, struggled to even threaten the RBAI territory. It finished with Wallace charging forward and being knocked back, just a little short.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 18 mins: N Annett try, T Shorten con 7-0; 24 mins: J Watt pen 7-3. Half-time: 7-3. 40 mins: T Shorten pen 10-3; 46 mins: J Burgess try, J Watt con 10-10; 52 mins: Watt penalty 13-10, 55 mins: Burgess try, Watt con 10-20; 56 mins: J Watt pen 10-23.
RBAI; J Burgess; J Henderson, M Simms, M McKeever, R Fegan; J Watt, P Coulter; A Lusk, B McDowell, J Chapman, C Atkinson, R Caldwell (captain), G Mitchell, A Watt, A Burns. Replacements: D Harris for Henderson 35 mins. R Johnson for A Watt 61 mins. A Hill for Chapman 63 mins.
WALLACE HIGH SCHOOL: J Currie; M McCormick, L Jones, D Clifford, I Semple; T Shorten, N Annett; C Henry (Captain), T Lee, M Hill, D Dawson, M McClean, G Boyd, D Morrison, A Tucker.
Referee: M Kilgore.
