Academy beaten by ‘bridge

OMAGH Academy’s hopes of making it into the knockout stages of the Danske Bank Schools Cup were left in tatters when they fell to a 28-3 reverse to a physically-imposing Banbridge Academy side in the clash rearranged following Storm Darragh’s arrival. Sam Harper’s early penalty, which came during a bright start for the home side, was the Academy’s only score during a game that was much closer than the scoreline suggests.

Unfortunately, a knock-on shortly after the restart and a few other errors cost them at vital times as Banbridge, coached by former Royal School Dungannon PE teacher, Gareth McClintock, took their opportunities to seal victory.

“They were massive, plain and simple,” Omagh PE teacher Ross Hunter observed. “They were big but we had a couple of missed opportunities and we started really well.

“Our first lineout was brilliant on the halfway line and we drove them back about 20 metres before breaking down the blindside but we were just unlucky to knock it on otherwise it would have been a walk-in score.

“That would have started us off brilliantly and it could have made a difference but their size and power put us on the back foot a little bit and we couldn’t quite handle that. But while it was 28-3, it was probably more competitive than it sounds.”

Having bounced back from defeat to Dalriada in their opening Group D game by beating RS Dungannon away from home, Omagh were still in the mix for qualification for the last-16 of the Schools Cup, but after defeat to Banbridge, they now know they will be involved in one of the subsidiary competitions when the draw is made next week.

“It was going to be tough [to qualify] but the group was close enough,” Hunter acknowledged. “If we had won we could have got into second place potentially but we didn’t. We’ll just wait for the draw next week and we’ll wait and see what happens – fingers crossed for a home draw!”