‘Plenty of positives’ for Ferguson

NEW Royal School Dungannon PE teacher and head of rugby, Ali Ferguson admits he was able to take ‘plenty of positives’ from his young side’s performance in a narrow two point defeat to Banbridge Academy in their opening Danske Bank Schools Cup Group D fixture of the season.

The clash not only gave the players the chance to get their Schools Cup campaign underway but it also allowed the RSD lads to bid a proper farewell to their former PE teacher, Gareth McClintock who moved to Banbridge at the end of last year.

And Ferguson admits it was nice to have his predecessor back at the Armstrong Field for the afternoon.

“The boys were just really excited to get going. All along, since basically the end of July we have been talking about Schools Cup and preparing for it and I think they were just excited that it was finally here,” he said.

“And with the added thing of having Gareth back here, which was nice because he’s been such a big part of their journey through PE and rugby and I know it was probably emotional or tough for him, but from our perspective it was good to have him back and it gave the guys another chance to wish him well and say goodbye.”

The rip-roaring encounter got off to a bright start for Banbridge as they rumbled over in the corner following a lineout to go 5-0 up. But the RSD lads battled back and reduced the deficit through Blake Redmond’s brilliant penalty before he missed another from halfway by the smallest of margins. But Banbridge responded with a converted try before the break.

While some may have baulked at a 12-3 deficit at the break but not the RSD lads, who hit the ground running after the restart with the likes of a rejuvenated James Gibson leading the charge in his first appearance of the season.

Redmond scored the home side’s first try of the day before Josh Ferguson did likewise as RSD found themselves 15-12 to the good with just six or seven minutes to go.

Unfortunately for the players and their new coach, they were unable to withstand the Banbridge onslaught in the closing stages as McClintock’s new charges crossed the whitewash once more with just a couple of minutes to spare to seal a narrow win.

“It was a brilliant game of rugby in terms of the physicality of it and the pace of it and ultimately that’s what you want from the Schools Cup, those close, tight games. It’s just a pity it didn’t quite go our way,” Ferguson observed.

“That’s a game, ultimately we should have won but we had a poor start. In the first two or three minutes, they put us in the corner and scored from a driving maul. We spoke about discipline, so that was a poor start, but they showed a lot to get back into it and some of the rugby we played to get back into it in the second half was brilliant.

“And when we went ahead with six or seven minutes left to play you could see the boys were getting excited, maybe a bit too excited as there was still quite a bit of rugby left to play and effectively what it did was it spurred Banbridge back into life again and they started shifting the ball very well.

“They got a clean line-break and with a couple of minutes left they got over in the corner.

“There’s a lot of positives we can take from it but it’s still frustrating that we didn’t get it over the line.”

Meanwhile, the RSD seconds locked horns with their Banbridge counterparts on the adjacent pitch, winning 38-36.

RSD’s first XV are scheduled to take their Omagh Academy counterparts on in their second Danske Bank Schools Cup Group D clash this coming Saturday at The Armstrong Field.