The Royal won the Schools Cup in 2004, beating Campbell College in the final. John McCall, the captain of that team, died 10 days after the final while playing for the Ireland U19 rugby team in the IRB U19 World Championship in South Africa. John had been told of his selection for this team on the day of the Schools Cup final. A few months later, a second member of the squad, Todd Graham, was killed in a road accident while visiting his parents at their home in Zambia. These tragedies brought perspective to what had been an otherwise successful year, with the Royal becoming the first school since Methodist College Belfast in 1936 – and only the second school ever – simultaneously to hold the schools cups for rugby and girls' hockey. The cricket 1st XI were beaten semi-finalists in their equivalent competition. The girls' hockey team won the Kate Russell all-Ireland hockey trophy on the day that John McCall died.