Friends win rugby Memorial Cup

The event, held at Lurgan RFC, hosted the best of local talent from Friends School, Lurgan College, Banbridge Academy, and Portadown College.

The tournament was played in a ‘round-robin’ format, with short 15 minute games. First up were Friends School and Lurgan College and a fast pace was set by both sides as a crowd of spectators gathered to cheer them on. In the end the match was scoreless earning both teams a point.

In the next round defences were on top as Portadown and Friends were deadlocked at 0-0 in the following match.

Friends School qualified for the final with an impressive 7-0 victory over the Academy side. With Friends school on 4 points and Portadown on 3 points only a win was good enough for Lurgan College in their final encounter against neighbours Portadown. With this knowledge the College team took the game by the scuff of the neck winning 8-0 with centre, Mark Mcilwaine, scoring all the points.

In the final Friends School faced Lurgan College and following their scoreless draw in the first game Friends opted to bank an early penalty as Ross Robinson slotted his kick. As the game wore on Friends kept Lurgan pinned back as they struggled to get out of their half. With minutes to go Lurgan went though the phases and crept forward into the Friends half. However the Lisburn boys were disciplined knowing a penalty would even the tie. In the end a knock on allowed the Friends scrum half to pick up the loose ball and kick it off the pitch.

During the presentations Alistair Brown from Ulster Rugby presented the player of the tournament award to Friends outhalf Ross Robinson. Alistair also singled out the scrum halves who kept the games moving with some great distribution. Finally the Gary Clarke Memorial Cup was presented to the winning captain from Friends, Matthew Patterson, by Richard Clarke.