WALLACE High of Lisburn came out on top against Royal School Armagh and bagged its first Ulster School’s Cup victory in its 145-year history.
Three tries came from the front row for the navy and white stripes, with Rio McDonagh (two) and Adam Gould crossing the white line at Ravenhill and the overall forward pack impressing in their sixth Schools final appearance.
The Lisburn school had been beaten finalists on five occasions, last reaching the St Patrick’s Day showpiece in 2015, losing to RBAI.
The fans turned out in force for both sides, with drums and facepaint seen in the crowd cheering on their schools.
Evan Hughes of Armagh opened up the scoring with a penalty before a quick retaliation from McDonagh for Derek Suffern’s side.
Cameron Cunning latched onto an offload by Hughes to put Armagh ahead again, but that would be the last time Armagh would be on the positive side of the scoreline.
The Wallace forwards took over, with Gould scoring from close range and helping McDonagh to ground his second with a burst of pace down the middle of the Belfast pitch to make it 17-10 at the half.
In the second half, it was all one-way traffic, with Wallace getting the first score, settling the tone through centre Luke Dillon after Gould was instrumental yet again.
Thomas Dougan, the Royal’s captain, managed to lessen the deficit after Charlie Reaney was caught on the line by Gould and prevented from getting the score down.
In a match that was billed as a rematch of the cancelled 2020 final, Wallace proved that they were deserving winners of the Ulster Schools’ Cup despite Armagh’s persistence.