'It is the best feeling in the world' Jon Rodgers becomes first Wallace captain to lift Schools' Cup

The openside flanker led the Lisburn school to a 24-15 victory over Royal School Armagh in the St Patrick’s Day decider at Kingspan Stadium.

It was even sweeter for Rodgers as he went one better than his father Michael, who had captained Wallace in their first-ever Schools’ Cup final in 1989 when they lost to Methody.

“It is a great feeling, the reality exceeded the expectation and it is the best feeling in the world,” he said. “I have been dreaming about it for a couple of years and it is the best feeling in the world. It is just incredible and all the work we put in that has led to this moment.

“My Dad had been on my back for a couple of years about getting to this stage as he did it himself. I have got one further than him now and actually won it, so there is going to be a great celebration in our house.”

Rodgers stated how he always felt it would be Wallace’s year, especially when they put reigning champions RBAI out in the last eight.

He explained: “I did it with all my best mates that I have been with for seven years. We knew coming into the season that we had the squad to do it, we have been building all year, a couple of good results and a couple of results where we thought we hadn’t done as well.

“That Inst result gave us belief where we put out the champions and we thought we can do it this year. When you get to December and January it is all mental, you are as physically prepared as you can be, it is mental when you are going out onto freezing pitches every day, you are working for two hours on the pitch trying to make yourself better, it’s always mental in those couple of months leading up to the Schools’ Cup.”

Wallace went to their power game.

“I thought everyone was excellent, there will be a lot of focus on our forward pack but I thought our backs were very good, their offloading, their support game and they shut their backs down very well and a lot of credit has to go to them,” said Rodgers. “To win a Schools’ Cup is seven years in the making, training three or four times a week, countless hours, countless extras and the boys deserve it so much. For the school it gives them something very tangible and very visible to achieve as well, it shows Wallace is a school that can compete and has competed in the past and we can do it.”

ROYAL SCHOOL ARMAGH: T Morris, R Hamilton, N Hamilton, C Cummings, Z Majid, E Hughes, W Boyd; A Stinson, C Reaney, C Dale, H Dougan, J Reid, B Russell, S Gray, T Dougan (captain).

Replacements: M George, H Hutchinson, B Todd, I Kingston, F Starrett, R Finlay, A Harrison, M Watterson.

WALLACE HIGH SCHOOL: J Geddis, D Wilson, L Dillon, H Daniel, J Booth, Q Armstrong, A Stevenson; R McDonagh, J Gould, O Fitzsimmons, R Ewing, M McCavery, B Moore, J Rodgers (captain), S Warwick.

Replacements: O Cole, D Macklin-Copeland, J Furphy, C Thompson, C Harper, J Curran, C Dawson-Stirling, E Harris.