A soaking wet Saturday morning treated a large group of supports to a hard fought Schools Cup match, when Portadown College travelled to Belfast High School.

Report and images by Davie Hayes

A crowd of over 100 enjoyed what turned out to be lovely running rugby when in fact it should have been a slow slog in difficult conditions. The surface at Belfast High School was impeccable but unfortunately the same could not be said about the conditions overhead.

Belfast High took the lead when Cameron Banford slotted over a penalty to give them a 3 – 0 lead on the 10th minute. The lead was quickly extended when Adam Bennett crossed the white wash only a few minutes later. Kicking boots firmly on, Banford slotted the extra two.

Belfast High keep the action in the Portadown College half and extended their lead further when we witnessed a beautiful offload from the winger into Daniel Bennett‘s hands for Bennett to comfortably cross for an extra 5 to give the High School and 15 – 0 lead at half time.

The second half kicked off and the rain did not let up, Belfast High continued the pressure both on the scoreboard and the pitch when centre Adam Bennett went straight under the posts to push the lead out to 20 – 0. Banford carefully split the uprights to leave BHS 22 – 0 ahead.

Portadown showed resilience and fought right to the death, rewarded for their efforts when Jamie Jackson made a beautiful break to start the scoring for Portadown.

With the conditions worsening, crowds climbing further into their coats, the players didn’t seem to notice. We were treated to two late, late tries to finish of the game. First Belfast High School’s Tom McKeown crossed over to take their final total to 27 then, not to be outdone, Ethan Hodgens scored for Portadown to take them out to 14 points.

A tough game from start to finish. Final Score, Belfast High School 27 – 14.

Belfast High School meet Foyle in the next round of the Ulster Schools Cup.

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