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THE Royal School Dungannon rugby first XV are going into their last-16 Danske Bank Schools’ Cup clash with Rainey Endowed with confidence that they will progress.
David Riddles men will host their Magherafelt foes at the Armstrong Field this morning knowing they have home advantage and no shortage of momentum after coming through the group stage of the competition as one of only two teams to record a perfect run of four wins from four fixtures.
However, even with form on their side and having yet to face Rainey and thus going into the clash with a clean slate, they know they will need to be at their best on the day to book their place in the quarter-finals of the prestigious competition.
“We haven’t played Rainey, so it’s a completely fresh game for us, so I think for us, the mentality we need to carry forward is us and Down High School are the only teams who came out of the group stage unbeaten, so we need to carry that momentum forward,” RSD’s head of PE, Riddles, said.
“Since I started here at the start of October, they haven’t lost a game that we played and there have been some games where they have had to fight and defend their line well and just grind out a win, which is good because it shows they have that depth that when they are put under the pump a bit that they can stick it out and find a way to win.
“That’s the sign of a good team, a team that’s willing to do whatever it takes to get over the line, so the success that has been built so far is really good and substantial and I think, not to get over-confident in ourselves or cocky in any sort of manner, but knowing that’s the standard you have set means you are more than capable of going out and doing that again.
“It’s good that they haven’t played them in a way and it’s good there’s no lack of confidence there. We need to carry that forward with controlled emotion and the objective that yes, we are unbeaten, but that doesn’t mean we’re unbeatable.
“We need to keep that at the forefront of our minds that we have the talent, we have the mindset to go and do it, but we have to do it on the day otherwise we will be beatable.”
While managing expectations ahead of the game and maintaining focus during it will be key for the RSD lads, so too will the emotional aspect of a derby clash, which Riddles isn’t going to over-hype.
“I haven’t personally thought about that, maybe because I’m not a Dungannon man myself but the boys might think of it like that [as a derby clash],” he added.
“I certainly haven’t tried to heighten any anticipation with it being like that and talking about it.
“You’re going into these things and you want to imbue a bit of fire into them but at the same time you need to keep them level-headed and keep them on track to what the target is and go from there.
“You want them to be fired up in the right moments, controlled aggression and not letting their emotions get the better of their senses.
