Strabane Academy are building for the future

STRABANE Academy’s rugby first XV may be preparing for tomorrow’s second round Schools’ Cup encounter against Grosvenor, but they are also planning for the longer term.

This year’s squad, who will host the city slickers at the weekend, is very young with the majority made up of fifth years pupils.

And one of the team’s coaches, Adam Bratton, who is skipper of Rainey’s All-Ireland League team, believes in the next year or two the school will reap the rewards of giving so many younger players the chance to shine on the big stage this year.

“It’s a very young team this year,” he acknowledged. “We only have five upper sixth playing this year and three lower sixth, so it’s nearly 50 per cent under-16.

“In the long run and for the future development of rugby in the school it’s going to be good because these guys in fifth year at 16 will be cutting their teeth at senior rugby in the Schools’ Cup, so it will be a good experience for them.”

So far this year, Strabane have had some very good performances, most notably against Omagh Academy and Foyle College when they only lost by a late score in each as Strabane’s lack of squad depth saw them struggle a little in the latter stages.

Unfortunately, their lack of numbers hasn’t been helped by the loss of their influential captain, Mark Millar, who will miss Saturday’s clash and the rest of the season after tearing his NCL against Omagh Academy.

But one thing this Strabane Academy doesn’t lack is courage and Mr Bratton knows that despite his side being overwhelming underdogs, they will give everything they have during the heat of battle.

“We’re huge underdogs, we have no pressure,” Mr Bratton observed. “All the pressure will be on Grosvenor because no one is expecting Strabane to come away with anything.

“Who knows what might happen. You can’t say upsets never happen but as long as we put in a performance. We’re happy as long as we can look each other in the eye and say we gave it 110 per cent. If we can keep our starting XV on the pitch and all fit, get off to a good start and don’t go into our shells then we’ll stand our own.

“We’ll give it our best go and that’s one thing about Strabane Academy boys, they will always front up and they will always give it 110 per cent of their best efforts.

“They trained well today [Monday] and they’ll get another good session under their belts on Wednesday. We’ll do everything we can.”

Saturday’s fixture will be the first time Strabane Academy have played in the Schools’ Cup at their new facility on the Derry Road and Bratton feels that can only be a positive for his side.

“We’re happy to have home advantage against a good Grosvenor team,” he added.

“It’ll be nice to see Schools’ Cup rugby being played at the new school, on the new pitch. Hopefully we’ll get a few parents and pupils out to watch to get a bit of an atmosphere on the sideline.”

Kick off at Strabane Academy on Saturday is 11am.

Meanwhile, the school’s Medallion team will also tackle Grosvenor in their cup competition. That game was meant to be played on Tuesday before Storm Barra struck, but it will now take place today (Friday) at 12.30pm at Marina Park, Belfast.