We caught up with some rugby on Wednesday, travelling from the tropical east coast to the frozen tundra of Mid Ulster for the U16 High School Cup Semi Final between Ballyclare Secondary School and Devenish College at the Meadowbank Stadium.

After spending a fair part of the morning trying to find out what matches were still on I was a little late arriving at Meadowbank but the game was still 0 – 0 about 10 minutes in. The pitch was bathed in low winter sunshine and, though playable, the artificial surface was a little on the firm side. Despite the sun it was still pretty cold but both teams made a good attempt to play some rugby in the difficult conditions.

The match was fairly even as I arrived though Ballyclare looked . . .