Dungannon set to welcome familiar face for first clash

THERE will be a familiar face patrolling the visiting team’s touchline this afternoon when Royal School Dungannon welcome Banbridge Academy to the Armstrong Field for their opening Danske Bank Schools Cup group D clash.

Gareth McClintock, who left RSD over the summer, will make a swift return to the school with his new side Banbridge this week and while his successor, Alistair Ferguson is looking forward to that particular clash, he’s just as excited about developing his team and squad over the coming years.

As part of that process, Ferguson, who took over from McClintock as head of rugby and PE at RSD after earning his stripes at Foyle College in Derry, is keen to take the group stage of the Schools’ Cup on a game by game basis this year.

And with what looks like an evenly matched series of contests against Banbridge and Omagh Academy at home before a trip to Dalriada, that’s perhaps the best approach he can take as he continues to get to know what is a very young RSD first XV squad.

“We’ll be taking it on a game by game basis,” he confirmed. “To be honest, on our day we could beat any of the three teams, but equally, there’s no fixtures that would be a dead cert.

“All of the games could go either way depending on injuries, whether it’s home or away and who performs better on the day.

“There will be a lot to it and I think it’s very difficult to call, particularly for me when I don’t have experience of our boys, who I’m only getting to know.

“But we have a strong Medallion squad coming through, so with them and this current group getting exposure [to first XV rugby] this year, it should stand us in good stead going forward.”

With two home games in their group D campaign, Ferguson knows he’s had the rub of the green on that front, but he also knows the margin for error in all three fixtures will be tiny, given the similar levels of each of the teams they will face.

And regardless how the three fixtures go, he is looking forward to competitive rugby continuing into the new year in either the Schools Cup knockout rounds or in one of the subsidiary contests.

“It’s always a huge advantage to have two home games but I don’t think there will be much difference between the sides,” he observed.

“Looking at results, Dalriada are probably one of the stronger sides, whereas last year they wouldn’t have been. We know we’ll have to turn up for all three games and we’ll take it as it comes.

“And regardless which way it goes we know there will be more competitive rugby January time. Ideally it would be brilliant to have a crack at a last-16 clash and ideally we’d want to have a go at someone just coming into the Schools Cup at that stage, but if it isn’t we know we’ll still face good teams who have finished third or fourth in their groups.”