Tyrone sides ready for Schools Cup kick-off

OMAGH Academy, Royal School Dungannon and Strabane Academy will kick-off their group stage campaigns in this year’s Danske Bank Schools Cup this morning.

Omagh are the only one of the three to start at home, welcoming near neighbours Enniskillen Royal Grammar to Campsie Playing Fields, while Dungannon make the short trip to Magherafelt where they face Rainey Endowed, and Strabane face a long trek over the Glenshane Pass to Belfast High School.

All three teams face a plethora of challenges throughout the group stages, during which they play three games, two away from home, with the aim of finishing top in order to progress to the knockout stages.

That makes every game in the group stage a must win clash for those hoping to progress and with Grosvenor and Regent House also in group E, Omagh Academy coach, Ross Hunter, knows his side could do with making a winning start.

However, having already lost 30-17 at home to Enniskillen at the start of the year, his much changed side from last season will know they face a tough task against their Fermanagh neighbours before they travel to Grosvenor, who they ousted from the competition last term, and Regent House, who are something of an unknown quantity.

“It’s a long time since we’ve played Regent House so it’s hard to know what standard they are at,” he said.

“Obviously, looking at the result between us and Grosvenor last year in the Schools’ Cup itself, it’s one we’d certainly target this year and then hope for a win against Regent as well but this one on Saturday, it would be nice to get off to a winning start and a good performance first of all.

“All we can do is keep preparing the best we can and perform to the best of our abilities on the day and home advantage can make a difference, so you just never know. We know what we have got to do.”

Having lost several key players over the summer, the Academy side is fortunate to have retained significant experience and while Hunter would ideally like to get their Schools’ Cup campaign off to a winning start, his immediate priority is a performance, which he hopes will then feed into their remaining fixtures.

“We understand where we are and where we’re at and if we get a performance, do the best we possibly can then the result will, hopefully, come and if not we’ll take positives out of performances,” he added.

“There are a lot of Year 14s in [the squad], it’s what you would class as an experienced team but we have lost a number of the starters from last year’s first XV. A lot of these boys would have been in the seconds last year but are stepping up this year but there will be a few younger boys in the squad as well so it will be good to get them some experience of it.”

Meanwhile, Dungannon head coach, Gareth McClintock, whose side also face Portadown College and Friends, is most definitely treating their game at Rainey as a must-win encounter.

“We’d have loved a home draw because Rainey is not a nice place to go,” McClintock said.

“It’s tough anytime but particularly for a cup game and I’d say there will be a big build-up to it on their side and ours with the players well aware of what is on the line because effectively you have to win your group.

“We just have to get the win because you don’t want to go through the rest of the phases with that kind of pressure on you of having to score bonus points to ensure you go through. If you just win your group by winning all of your matches it makes your life much easier.

“Otherwise it will come down to points scored for one team who comes second and goes through so this is a big game for us.

“It’s the biggest game because we’d be expected to beat Portadown and we beat Friends comfortably at the start of the season, so this is our biggest game in this qualifying phase.”

And Strabane’s new first XV head coach, Adam Bratton is using this year’s competition as an experience building exercise for his young team, who will also entertain Foyle College and travel to Down High.

“It’s a very young team, it’s very much a long-term project,” confirmed Bratton, who will be assisted by Stephen Smyth.

“It’s going to be tough, there will be challenges but it will be a good learning curve. And the fact there are three games in a tough draw which sees us go to the two teams, ideally, we would have had at home, makes it even more difficult but it’s a big challenge and it will stand to the boys.

“We’re not going into each game expecting to get beat, we’ll give 110 per cent and it will be a good experience for next year when we will be more competitive.

“It’s just tough with such a young side. But we have trained well and we are well prepared and there’s good enthusiasm.”