Wallace High School savour first-ever Ulster Schools Senior Cup title

Royal School Armagh 15
Wallace High School 24

Michael Sadlier reports from Ravenhill

HISTORY WAS MADE at the Ulster Schools’ Cup final as Wallace High School won the trophy for the first time following five previous defeats and a final, in 2020, which wasn’t played due to the pandemic.

Wallace scored four tries against Royal School Armagh on their way to lifting the trophy, two tries from prop Rio McDonagh while hooker James Gould and centre Luke Dillon also crossed in a game which the Lisburn school led 17-10 at the midway point.

Cameron Cummings and Thomas Dougan crossed for Royal School in what was a competitive final from start to finish though a contest which Wallace deserved to win.

Evan Hughes got Royal School under way with a long-range penalty after two minutes, the ball rebounding in off a post.

Wallace hit back immediately, winning a penalty off the restart and putting the ball in the corner. They mauled impressively towards the line where, with a penalty advantage, prop McDonagh scored, though Josh Geddis missed from the tee.

Their lead lasted just three minutes as Armagh replied by putting a penalty into the Wallace corner and then found a way to work centre Cummings through, with Hughes adding the two to put Royal School back in front at 10-7 with not even 10 minutes gone.

The lead then bounced back Wallace’s way after their forwards drove up to Armagh’s line where hooker Gould touched down under the sticks with Geddis slotting the conversion to make it 12-10 to the Lisburn school.

Wallace extended their lead on 28 minutes when Gould surged through a gap which ended up with McDonagh claiming his second though, once again, Geddis was wide from the tee.

Armagh came close to scoring before the end of the half when Tristan Morris was superbly tackled by Dillon, allowing the half to end with Wallace leading 17-10.

On 43 minutes from another penalty, pressure exerted from Wallace’s maul saw centre Dillon crashing through, and Geddis slotted the two.

It took until the hour before Armagh collected some vital points after skipper and number eight Thomas Dougan smashed over. The try was unconverted by sub Adam Harrison but, from there, Wallace finished strongly to deservedly win.

Royal School Armagh: T Morris, R Hamilton, N Hamilton, C Cummings, Z Majid, E Hughes, W Boyd; A Stinson, C Reaney, C Dale, H Dougan, J Reid, B Russell, S Gray, T Dougan (capt).

Replacements: M George, H Hutchinson, B Todd, I Kingston, F Starrett, R Finlay, A Harrison, M Watterson.

Wallace High School: J Geddis, D Wilson, L Dillon, H Daniel, J Booth, Q Armstrong, A Stevenson; R McDonagh, J Gould, O Fitzsimmons, R Ewing, M McCavery, B Moore, J Rodgers (capt), S Warwick.

Replacements: O Cole, D Macklin-Copeland, J Furphy, C Thompson, C Harper, J Curran, C Dawson-Stirling, E Harris.

Referee: P Martin