ERGS 13 RBAI 29

Enniskillen Royal faced perennial powerhouse Royal Belfast Academical Institution in the Last 16 of the Ulster Schools’ Cup on Saturday morning, looking to cause an upset for the history books.

The first 15 minutes was an evenly contested affair with neither side dominating possession but instead testing the nerve of the opposition by kicking deep and trying to force an error.

ERGS settled into their rhythm and tried to play their expansive brand of rugby, stretching the Belfast side’s defence from edge to edge, but could not find the space and failed to capitalise on a good spell on possession.

Brave decisions to refuse routine kicks at goal and instead go to the corner in the attempt to score tries to apply some pressure ended up fruitless with the score still 0-0 after 20 minutes.

Small moments can change games, however, and as ERGS attacked with aggression in the RBAI ‘22’, an infringement at a breakdown saw them concede a penalty to allow the Belfast side to relieve the pressure.

However, consecutive penalties followed with RBAI marching their way up the field until they had a line-out 15 metres out from the Enniskillen line.

A powerful maul followed by a strong forward carry resulted in RBAI scoring a try close to the posts, which was converted to make the score 7-0.

ERGS did not back down, and after being kicked deep into their half, they produced a moment of magic.

Inside centre James Trotter spotted a mismatch out wide, throwing a miss pass to pacey winger Ben McLaren to make a searing break up the left wing.

McLaren, after beating two players, offloaded the ball back inside to Trotter, who calmly squared up the fullback and passed to fellow centre Karl Bothwell to run in from 40 yards out.

Resolute defending

The uncoverted try buoyed the home team and after a long period of resolute defending from the forward pack, namely front rowers Kerr and Hetherington, and some brilliant one-on-one tackles by wing Jake Woods, they relieved the pressure and made their way back down into the RBAI half, winning a penalty in front of the posts, which outhalf Tadhg Hambly converted to give ERGS an 8-7 edge.

Once again, RBAI piled on the pressure, but with an impressive defensive display from the back row trio of Courtney, Seaman and Morrison, ERGS managed to hold out to half time.

RBAI started the second half red-hot, reclaiming the restart, and within three phases scoring a well-worked try out wide.

With ERGS continuing to try to play rugby, a few handling errors proved costly, and the pressure applied by RBAI only increased, which resulted in a quick turn of the tides.

RBAI kicking a penalty, and scoring two more converted tries within the next 10 minutes, effectively put the tie to bed at 29-8, with 20 minutes still to go.

However, the young Enniskillen side threw caution to the wind and started to regain a foothold in the match.

Strong forward carries from the powerful Reece Holmes, Toby Newman and Cameron Smith forced RBAI back into their half.

More excellent play followed with Tim Harte and Eamon Greene making half breaks and scrum half Alex Howe keeping the tempo high to allow ERGS to make inroads into the ‘22’.

Eventually, the quick thinking of Hambly to take a quick-tap penalty caught the RBAI defence sleeping, and he ran in almost untouched to score in the corner.

A deserved consolation try, as it was the last play of the game, leaving the scoreline 29-13 in favour of the Belfast side.

A disappointing end result for ERGS, but a thrilling performance for large parts of the game where they went toe-to-toe with the best in Ulster.

There is still a chance of silverware this season with both the 1st XV and 2nd XV still in their respective subsidiary competitions, and both facing Belfast Royal Academy over the coming weeks.