The Front Row Union Sport - Schools: Craigavon Senior HS 55 Ballyclare Secondary 5 (U16 High School Trophy)

Craigavon Senior High School notched up a resounding win against Ballyclare Secondary School in the Ulster U16 High Schools Trophy Final yesterday afternoon at Ravenhill.

The High school got off to a strong start with No 8 John Glasgow powering over, off the back of a scrum, for the opening score after a couple of minutes. He was quickly followed by the impressive Bailey Armitage who started and ended a break from deep for Craigavon’s second. Joshua Taylor added the extras to push The High School 12 points clear.

The Craigavon centre pairing of Armatage and Ciaran Patterson wreaked havoc with the Ballyclare defence with Patterson crossing for a brace before Armitage picked up a first half hat trick with two more scores before the break. Taylor added another three conversions to take the score to 30 – 0 as the teams changed ends.

Ballyclare worked hard in the second half to stem the flow and enjoyed substantial periods of territory and possession however Craigavon had the clinical edge and Jack Dang and Tony Gribben both crossed for tries seven and eight, Taylor converting the latter to take the score to 50 – 0.

A huge effort from Ballyclare at the start of the final quarter finally reaped some reward with Ashley Doherty finding some space on the left after a series of punching drives at the line from his back row colleagues.

However it was Craigavon who were to have the final say with out half Jamie Hayes finding Taylor out wide with a well judged cross field kick for Taylor to add a try to his five conversions.

Final Score: Craigavon Senior HS 55 Ballyclare Secondary 5

Craigavon SHS: Jack Coulter, Toby Gribben, Ciaran Petersen, Bailey Armitage, Joshua Taylor, Jamie Hayes, Matthew Orr, Jay Crozier, Sam Anderson, Joshua Young, Harry White, Jamie Marshall, Jack Dang, Samuel Glasgow, John Glasgow (C). Replacements: Scott McKinney, Stephen Taylor, Alex Morrison, Devon McCarroll, Joel McClatchey, Daniel Harrison, Jay Anderson, Robert White.

Ballyclare Secondary: Benjamin Archbold, Ethan McAuley, Carson Todd, Adam Warren (C), Kristian Best, Thomas Rea, Bradley Yip, William Stewart, Graeme Coulter, Tom Lindsay, Steven McConkey, Rhys Magill, Samuel McLean, James Henderson, Ashley Doherty. Replacements: Zak Wilson, Dylan Coyle, Jack Duncan, Tyler Murdock, John Allen, Peter Stewart-McBride, Oran Lormier, Samuel Patterson.