Match Preview: Sullivan Upper School vs Bangor Grammar School - 06/10/2018
Sullivan Upper School vs Bangor Grammar School
Tomorrow morning, Bangor Grammar School head to Holywood for what is expected to be a fierce North Down derby against local rivals Sullivan Upper School.
Match Preview
Sullivan have had an excellent start to the year, winning all three of their matches so far (vs Royal School Dungannon, Down High School and Belfast Royal Academy). Their star player is a familiar name to fans of Bangor Grammar School - Conor McKee. (Don't worry, it's not the same person!)
Bangor Grammar School have had an up and down season so far, with wins against Belfast Met and Belfast High and (fairly narrow it must be said) defeats against Royal School Armagh and Ballymena Academy.
At this early stage in the season it's hard and irrelevant to draw conclusions from these defeats though, as Bangor haven't fielded a full strength team yet due to interpro commitments and injuries. One does get a sense that the team has made big gains from last season. An example of this came during the first 50 minutes against Ballymena Academy (on their own turf), when Bangor Grammar comfortably controlled play.
Last Time
This time last year at Gransha, Bangor Grammar School started strongly, but Sullivan fought back to record a comfortable victory.
Daniel Young opened the scoring for Bangor with Rhys Larmour converting. Sullivan responded with a try of their own (unconverted), but Bangor held the lead moving into the second half.
Bangor won a penalty either side of half time, but only the second one was successful, bringing the score to 10-5. Unfortunately the home team couldn't add to this through the remainder of the match.
In the second half, Sullivan moved up through the gears and scored several tries. The final score was 33-10 to Sullivan.
Team News
Last weekend, Bangor Grammar had several players unavailable due to a Duke of Edinburgh Award expedition (Ben McCrossan, Gareth Wells and Rhys Larmour). For the Sullivan match, these players will return to their usual positions. Amongst them, Ben McCrossan is in line to start for the first time this season.
The return of Gareth Wells forces a reshuffle in the pack: Patrick Dobie and Riley Westwood both move forward a row. Adam Pritchard is a listed substitute having missed last week's match through injury (foot).
Angus Christie completes his long awaited return from injury (shoulder) for his first start of the season. Angus played the second half against Belfast High last Saturday and made a strong impact.
Michael McCreary comes in for Will Simpson on the wing, and Harry McCracken remains at full back. Lewis Hatty, who missed last week's match through an injury sustained in the pre-match warm up, is also listed as a replacement.
Members of the 2nd XV will be on hand should any further replacements be needed.
Aaron Sexton featured in Friday night's Celtic Cup match for the Ulster As and remains unavailable for selection. This is their last scheduled match of the season, so hopefully we have Aaron back playing in Bangor colours in the not-too-distant future. Until then, speculation grows over which position he might slot into - in the last 12 months we've seen Aaron play regularly at outhalf, centre, wing and full back, so it's a tough call for the coaches!
Match Details
Venue: Sullivan Upper School 1st XV pitch, Belfast Road, Holywood
Kick off time: 10.15 am
Last Encounter: BGS 10-33 SUS
BGS 2018-19 Form: P4 / W2 / D0 /L2 (Points for: 146 / Points against: 72)
Follow the match with live updates on the Gryphiti Twitter Account, plus more reaction and photographs on our Facebook page and here on the Gryphiti website. We'll be videoing the match and will have highlights later in the season. Best of luck to all B.G.S. lads playing for the 1st XV, and all our other teams tomorrow.
