Banbridge Rugby Club - Northern Ireland

The Under-17s, sponsored by Gordons Chemists, and the Under-15s, sponsored by Northern Bank, both topped the Ulster Premier Leagues and having successfully negotiated the play-offs involving the winners of the Area Leagues they now face the final test of their claims to be the top teams in the province.

Neither team came through their Premier League programme undefeated, with their respective opposition on Saturday having lowered their sails during those series of games. Malone U-17s caught Bann on the hop in the opening match of their league programme, inflicting a 17-27 defeat at Rifle Park.

However that was the only reverse suffered by the multi-talented Bann side as they went through the rest of their programme undefeated, amassing 327 points and conceding 90 in their nine games. That included a 24-5 win at Malone, avenging that single blotch on their record.

Captained by prop Jonny McCreery, the team blends a powerful set of forwards with a slick backline. However Team Coaches Tim Honeyford, Brian Cromie and David Neill are only too aware of the ability of the Malone side which finished close runners-up in the Premiership and which pose a serious threat to Bann's hopes of winning the U-17 title for the first time since the new age-grades came into force.

The Bann Under-15 side battled through a more difficult league programme to emerge as winners ahead of Carrick, their opposition on Saturday. Seven wins from nine games gave them a points tally of 202-150. But a 29-27 home win over Carrick, followed by a 15-10 away defeat to the Co Antrim side, suggests that there will be little between the sides at the end of Saturday's final. Matthew Beck captains a squad which has shown steady improvement over the season under Coaches Alan Harvey and Richard Jennings.

Bann have won Ulster league and cup titles a number of times over recent years. (It is worth noting that of the First XV which fielded against Nenagh last Saturday, ten of the players graduated from the club's youth ranks, including seven of the pack, a remarkable testimony to the work of the youth coaches over the years).

But they have never won two trophies in the same season. Saturday presents the two squads with the chance of putting their name in the club record books.

Your support will help them achieve their goal. So we hope to see you at Lisburn Rugby Club at 10.15am on Saturday for the start of the U-15 Final, followed by the U-17 Final at 11.30am.
If you travel on to Shaw's Bridge after the 17s final you may just catch the second half of the Instonians v Bann Under-13 friendly game, being played as a curtain-raiser to the crucial Ulster Bank League game between the clubs' senior sides.

All-in-all a packed day for every Bann supporter - so get along and play your part in supporting our boys from U-13 to senior level.

U-17 squad:- Jonny Adams, Jason Adamson, William Baird, Colin Cardwell, Thomas Carlisle, Joshua Coyle, Peter Cromie, Ben Cross, Ryan Dennison, Adam Doherty, Ryan Graham, Richard Graham, Adam Kelly, Chris Knox, Kasper Kruzyki, Jason Lamont, Matthew Lindsay, Macauley Little, Kyle McConnell, Jonny McCreery, Robert Poots, Steven Ruddock, Kyle Russell, Dillon Wilson.

U-15 squad:- Matthew Beck, Jake Chambers, Zach Chambers, Adam Copes, Cameron Cromie, Josh Cromie, James Curry, Jake Dennison, Andrew Harvey, Robin Hewitt, Lee Jackson, Keelan McCambridge, David McElroy, Thomas McRoberts, Alexander Megaw, Nathan Moffett, Michael Moore, Jordan Mullan, Ben Reid, Matthew Taylor, David Waddell, James Waugh, William Wilson.