Ulster School's Cup Final

NOT JUST ANOTHER RUGBY MATCH by ROD NAWN

BACK in 1876 the Danske Bank Schools’ Cup as we know it today was contested for the very first time – and one of today’s seats of learning, Belfast ‘Inst’ – took part in an epic three-match decider, ultimately losing out to inaugural winners, Royal School Armagh.

have worked hard to play on the finest stage of all, in front of fervent supporters and a large ‘live’ television audience. The players are the fortunate ones, representing their schools but also the scores of teams and players who, like them, started out in the campaign in January with dreams of lifting that famous shield. For many months coaches and aspiring young men trained in every possible condition, overhead and underfoot, their eyes firmly set on that first day of Schools’ Cup competition. For some of the traditionally more successful schools their teams’ entry would be delayed, the seeding system introduced in the last decade affording other – and new – schools the opportunity for a lengthier competitive season. Through the main cup itself or the subsidiary tournaments the aim to offer more meaningful action has been realised, and in just two days this stadium will be ‘rocking’ again as students, current and former, join friends and families to cheer on Down High School and Ballymena Academy in the Danske Bank Subsidiary Shield Final. And the Bowl and Trophy are also coveted rewards for teams which lost out at earlier stages of the senior competition, and such has been the success of the revised Schools’ Cup format in 2003 that there are more players and more teams staying in training mode for longer, rugby remaining a key part of the year in our educational centres. In 1876 the founders of what was then called the Schools’ Challenge Cup were providing an opportunity for real competition to encourage the growth of the game, and in the absence of any league system that original ideal has been maintained and grown. Early finals were staged rather randomly, and the Balmoral Showgrounds in Belfast then took on a more permanent role in hosting the match, while Windsor Park can also claim to have staged the St. Patrick’s Day celebration of the game. Then, in 1924, Ravenhill was the venue for the first time, and the hordes have since descended on the home of the game in

Historically that means that what started its life as Schools’ Challenge Cup is second only in rugby longevity to the United Hospitals Cup, established two years earlier and contested by the capital’s six medicine schools. So when St. Patrick’s Day arrives every year it is synonymous with schools’ rugby’s biggest occasion, its prestige undiminished, its importance perhaps even greater as the game’s structures keep a keener eye on the young talent which might constitute the big clubs, the Ulster of generations to come. For the squads lucky enough to parade their skills in the state-of-the-art Kingspan Stadium this afternoon, this is the day that makes worthwhile all those gruelling training sessions and pre-cup games in the chill, wet and gloom of late autumns and of December, January and February. The Danske Bank Schools’ Cup competition is now a very carefully-constructed tournament, designed to give more and more schools access to the tournament. The introduction of ‘seeding’ at various stages may have done away with the potential for a thrilling ‘David and Goliath’ contest in the first few rounds, an eye-catching upset as hot favourites fall to unfancied minnows. But there can be no doubt that sides get more games, players more competitive experience, and the Trophy and Bowl competitions guarantee the ambition to provide more meaningful action is realised. The Schools’ Committee of the Ulster Branch has shown foresight and there can be little doubt that more schools are playing the game and for longer each year. celebrates; the game of rugby itself, rudely healthy and still passionately embraced by young men – and women too remember in their competition! – who will hopefully contribute for years to come in every capacity, and at every level. This afternoon the two schools which earned their places in the annual, fevered showpiece And surely that is what today’s carnival atmosphere inside Kingspan Stadium

ROD NAWN

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