Danske Bank Schools’ Cup final:
Royal Belfast Academical Institute 13 Campbell College 3
ROYAL Belfast Academical Institution staged a smash and grab act to retain the Danske Bank Schools’ Cup with a 13-3 win over Campbell College in the final at Kingspan Stadium on Thursday.
Campbell were trailing 6-3 and looking likely to overturn the deficit when, with virtually the last action of the game, James Hume ran three-quarters the length of the pitch to score a try under the posts. The Inst centre added the conversion as he ended up scoring all his side’s points but the result was rough justice on Campbell, who had dominated most of the match.
In fact, Hume’s touchdown came as a result of only Inst’s second incursion into the opposition 22 in the entire second half as he intercepted a wayward pass to score the only try of the game which had failed to live up to its billing.
The second-half was punctuated with stoppages as players from both sides picked up injuries and Campbell suffered more from the resultant loss of momentum as they were chasing the game. However, credit should go to Inst who have now won back-to-back titles for the first time since 1948 as they defended heroically in the face of a second-half onslaught.
The city centre school also survived the second-half sin-binning of Mark Keane for a high tackle without conceding for the 10 minutes: “At this moment, I am just delighted, relieved and blown away that we held on in the second half when they threw everything at us,” said triumphant coach Dan Soper.
“When we had the ball we couldn’t keep it to relieve the pressure but we worked very hard at mimicking the Campbell line-out in training, did well in that and the boys tackled very well.”
Campbell coach Brian Robinson was understandably bitterly disappointed at the result after his team’s dominance went unrewarded: “We did really well to get so much territory and possession, better than I had expected actually but basically our attack wasn’t as good as their defence,” he said.
“They didn’t threaten us in the second half but they defended brilliantly, even when they were a man down but our clarity of thought left us at that stage and we weren’t as efficient as we needed to be which was frustrating.”
Inst’s early pressure was rewarded with a Hume penalty in the third minute which was cancelled out by John Crowther 20 minutes later. The east Belfast side proceeded to dominate the next 10 minutes and only a flailing Inst leg prevented a try as Nicolai Koplewsky ran on to Johnny Haldane’s chip ahead.
Campbell lost their captain James Boyle to injury early in the second-half and, on the hour, opted to kick for touch instead of for goal and their day was summed up when Inst stole the line-out once again.
Then with seconds remaining, and Campbell pressing for the try that would have won them the game, Inst stole victory when Hume latched on to a loose pass to score and that was that.
