Schools Cup Final: Wallace secure history with Kingspan win

Wallace High School lifted the Schools Cup title for the first time outright in their history following a deserved win over Royal School Armagh at the Kingspan earlier.

An entertaing encounter - in which Armagh more than played their part - saw the Lisburn school rattle off four tries, three i the first half, to set them on th road to victory as they aaw out thre remainder of the second period with supreeme professionalism.

It was Royal School Armagh who opened the scoring after just four minutes, courtesy of an Evan Hughes penalty.

But it took Wallace just 90 seconds to hit back with the opening of their three first half tries as Rio McDonagh forced his way over from close range. Tristan Morris missed the conversion to give the Lisburn school a 5-3 lead.

Armagh replied with a well-worked try of their own in the tenth minute as Cameron Cummings sneaked through after a clever offload from Hughes and with the latter converting, the underdogs edged back on top to lead 10-5.

However, for the remainder of the opening period, the much-vaunted Wallace forward line took over once they regained the advantage, they never looked back.

Wallace grabbed their second try on 18 minutes as McDonagh’s front row partner James Gould got in on the act to squeeze over right under the posts, giving Josh Geddis a simple conversion to make it 12-10 to the favourites.

Their third try of the half arrived seven minutes before the interval as McDonagh dotted down for his second of the game - that all came after a superb line break by fellow try scorer Gould

While Geddis was unable to convert, it gave Wallace a 17-10 lead going into the second period.

That seven-point lead soon became 14 nine minutes after the restart as Wallace notched their fourth of a pulsating encounter.

It came after a brief melee in the middle of the pitch that, surprisingly, didn’t see any player carded after punches were clearly thrown.

Wallace took advantage seconds later, as wing Luke Dillon spotted a gap 10 metres out to burst into and crash over and give Geddis another relatively simple conversion.

With nine minutes remaining, Armagh did give themselves a lifeline as captain Thomas Dougan managed to get over, but they were unable to convert, leaving nine points still between the sides with as many minutes to go.

But, it wasn’t enough as Wallace took a deserved victory.

MATCH STATS

Royal School Armagh

15-9: Tristan Morris, Ryan Hamilton, Nathan Hamilton, Cameron Cummings, Zakir Majid, Evan Hughes, Will Boyd

1-8: Alex Stinson, Charlie Reaney, Cameron Dale, Harry Dougan, James Reid, Bailey Russell, Sam Gray, Thomas Dougan (C)

Replacements: Matthew George, Harry Hutchinson, Ben Todd, Isaac Kingston, Finlay Starret, Reuben Finlay, Adam Harrison, Matthew Watterson

Tries: Cummings, Dougan

Conversions: Hughes (1)

Penalties: Hughes (1)

Wallace High School

15-9: Josh Geddis, Daniel Wilson, Luke Dillon, Harry Daniel, Joshua Booth, Quinn Armstrong, Alex Stevenson

1-8: Rio McDonagh, James Gould, Ollie Fitzimmons, Rhys Ewing, Michael McCavery, Ben Moore, Jon Rodgers (C), Sam Warwick

Replacements: Odhran Cole, Daniel Macklin-Copeland, James Furphy, Charlie Thompson, Charlie Harper, James Curran, Corey Dawson-Stirling, Elliot Harris

Tries: McDonagh (2), Gould, Dillon

Conversions: Geddis (2)