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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.
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.
And surely that is what today’s carnival
atmosphere inside Kingspan Stadium
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
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
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ROD NAWN