Brendan Gallagher continues his series looking at rugby‘s great schools
We recently featured the considerable rugby achievements of Royal Belfast Academical Institute (RBAI) so it’s unthinkable that we progress much further in this series without concentrating on their bitter rivals for over a century, namely Belfast Methodist College, universally known as Methody.
That duo, along with Campbell College, have dominated the Ulster Schools Cup pretty much from its inception and their old boys have featured prominently in Ulster, Ireland and, indeed, British and Irish Lions sides.
One of their early notables was Major General William Purdon DSO MC, a strong scrumhalf who played for the School Old Boys club, Collegians, after leaving to study medicine at Queen’s University Belfast. He won three caps in 1906, scoring a try in their famous 16-6 win over England at Welford Road, losing against Scotland but battling bravely to stay on for much of the game against Wales when he badly damaged knee ligaments.
Ireland won 11-6 and took the championship but the injury hampered Purdon for the rest of his career and he was forced to retire prematurely. Away from the playing fields he enjoyed a distinguished War, serving with the RAMC and for three years also acted as the Honorary Surgeon for King George Vl.
Jack Siggins was a ripe character and powerful No.8 at Methody who later won 24 caps for Ireland in the 30s and although he never represented the Lions as a player he proved a very popular manager of the 1955 tour – captained by an RBAI man Robin Thompson – which managed to combine having a good time with champagne rugby.
Soon after Siggins came Sir Ewart Bell, who combined skippering the First XV and serving as school captain during World War 2 before he went to Oxford and briefly became a maths master at Cheltenham before becoming a civil servant in Northern Ireland, eventually becoming permanent secretary in the Northern Ireland office. He also won four caps for Ireland in the 1953 Five Nations but in rugby circles he became even better known as an administrator, not least his role as chairman of Rugby World Cup when they staged the successful 1995 tournament.
During the 1960s a particularly successful old boy was scrumhalf Roger Young, who won 26 Ireland caps and four for the Lions during their testing 1966 and 1968 tours to South Africa and New Zealand.
On the subject of the Lions, Methody lock Jeremy Davidson –a particularly outstanding schoolboy international – made a big impression in 1997 when he played alongside Martin Johnson in all three Tests proving one of the possibly unexpected success stories of the tour. Davidson also toured Australia in 2001 although a chronic knee injury was beginning to bother him by then. He is currently coaching with some success at Brive.
In terms of the prestigious Ulster School Cup, Methody are four ahead of RBAA with 36 wins to 32 with 26 losing finals as opposed to 21. Campbell College, by the way, have 24 wins and 13 losing finals.
Looking at the statistics the defining feature of Methody since their first title in 1878 is their consistency throughout all the decades with only one blip in that trend – barren years between 1953 and ‘73 when they went 20 years without a win. Outside of that they have always been there and thereabouts, the team to beat if you want to win silverware. There have been five distinct golden periods in which they won three titles in succession 1891-93; 1927-29; 1974-76; 1989-91 and most recently 2012- 2014 – and invariably they are a force to reckon with.
That 2012-14 epoch was a particularly talented group with convincing wins over Ballyclare HS in 2012, RBAI in 2013 and Sullivan Upper in 2014. At various times that team featured five Irish Schools representatives – Conor McKee, Alex Thompson, Stephen Weir, Michael Lagan and the mercurial Josh Bing-ham, who was a brilliant schoolboy player and a standout in two of the finals but never quite kicked on as expected in senior rugby.
Powerful prop and captain Ross Kane was another influential figure.
What with Covid they remain the reigning champions having won the last completed competition in 2019 when they defeated Campbell College 43-17 in the final at Kingspan. Methody crossed for seven tries that afternoon for the biggest win in the final for 20 years with a brace for Thomas Armstrong and further scores from Ben Gourlay, Max Lyttle, Callum Davidson, David Boden and Adam Simms.
Away from the Ulster Schools Cup there have been occasional forays to the Rosslyn Park Sevens though, unlike their old rivals RBAI, they have yet to land the title. Twice they have reached the final and gone close. In 1967 hopes were high but they lost 13-8 to Whitgift in the best final of the 60s and eight years later they again went close, losing 4-0 to St Edward’s Liverpool in probably the muddiest final in the tournament’s history.
