It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was covering Ian Henderson, Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding in their own Schools Cup matches and it was good to see the young Ulster stars on the sidelines to watch Olding and Henderson’s old school, BRA, take on Down High in this Third Round match.

BRA have struggled somewhat his season but their first half efforts, backed by a strong wind, were enough to see them through to the Quarter Finals of this years competition.

BRA’s Michael Wilson slotted over two penalties in the first half with their try coming from Timothy Robinson, who followed up a missed penalty attempt to drop on the ball in the in-goal area. Wilson added the extras and BRA took a 0 – 13 lead into the break.

Down High certainly had their chances in the first half with a couple of missed penalties as well as being held up over he line but they eventually broke through the Academy defence when the ball popped out the side of a ruck for Zac Ward to snatch up and dot down. Charlie Power added the conversion but unfortunately for the Downpatrick side it was too little to late as Academy held on to record the win.

Academy now travel to Ballymena Academy for their Quarter Final match.

Images courtesy of Ian Humes Photography

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