Schools Rugby

Tim Robbins

Hi,
Q. 1. How long has the league for schools Rugby been going?
Q. 2. Why do the big six not play in this league? (I heard they didn't, could be wrong there.)

RugbyFanatic

Whats the point in a big team like Blackrock putting 300 points on a team like Sandford Park?

How does it do either team any good?

Tim Robbins

RugbyFanatic wrote: »

Whats the point in a big team like Blackrock putting 300 points on a team like Sandford Park?

How does it do either team any good?

I thought the big six would get decent games from the likes Gonzaga, Newbridge, Monkstown, Andrews, Mt Temple, Castlenock etc?

Hazys

I cant see how the current knock out systems in school rugby aides underage development.

I can only presume the gap between the big 6 (don't know much about Leinster School Rugby more Munster Schools) and other schools has only been widen by this knockout type competition, similar the quality of hurling teams over the years.

A round robin type competition would be a lot better to develop smaller schools, instead train for a few weeks get hockeyed in the first round by a big school and go home

Tim Robbins

Hazys wrote: »

A round robin type competition would be a lot better to develop smaller schools, instead train for a few weeks get hockeyed in the first round by a big school and go home

There are several leagues or round robins in Leinster which are graded. But from the leinster website I can't see which school plays in which league.

However, I can't believe the big 6 play in no leagues whatsoever. That means they train their guts out for 1, 2 or 3 competitive matches and that's it.

Downtime

AFAIK there is the schools senior league which the big six do not play in. There is also a Dev league. Then the cup starts in December with Section A and B and the big six join in January for section c. They pretty much train their guts out for 1 or 2 games or more if lucky. They do play many "friendlies" though

Tim Robbins

Downtime wrote: »

AFAIK there is the schools senior league which the big six do not play in. There is also a Dev league. Then the cup starts in December with Section A and B and the big six join in January for section c. They pretty much train their guts out for 1 or 2 games or more if lucky. They do play many "friendlies" though

Got this from leinsterfans.com.
It looks like the Senior League is split in two:

Group 1
Skerries
Newbridge
Roscrea
Kings Hospital
Templeogue
Pres Bray
CUS
Wesley

Group 2
St. Andrews
Kilkenny
St. Gerards
Columbas
CBC Monkstown
De La Salle Churchtown
HighSchool

So that means: no Castelnock, no Gonzaga, no Terenure, no Belvo, no Michaels, no Rock, no Clongows.

That's a bit mad. So the aforementioned train their guts out and might only 1 competitive fixture maybe 2 or 3 if they get a good cup run.

I think the schools need a complete overhaul as there are loads of other schools such as Mount Temple, Pauls, Navan (made the semis of the SCT a few years ago) not included there. There are also loads of schools playing in the development cups.

Have a league 1st half of season and the cups in the second half of season.

RugbyFanatic

Tim Robbins wrote: »

I thought the big six would get decent games from the likes Gonzaga, Newbridge, Monkstown, Andrews, Mt Temple, Castlenock etc?

Maybe the odd year but on a regular basis? Definitely not.

spillit67

Tim Robbins wrote: »

Got this from leinsterfans.com.
It looks like the Senior League is split in two:

Group 1
Skerries
Newbridge
Roscrea
Kings Hospital
Templeogue
Pres Bray
CUS
Wesley

Group 2
St. Andrews
Kilkenny
St. Gerards
Columbas
CBC Monkstown
De La Salle Churchtown
HighSchool

So that means: no Castelnock, no Gonzaga, no Terenure, no Belvo, no Michaels, no Rock, no Clongows.

That's a bit mad. So the aforementioned train their guts out and might only 1 competitive fixture maybe 2 or 3 if they get a good cup run.

I think the schools need a complete overhaul as there are loads of other schools such as Mount Temple, Pauls, Navan (made the semis of the SCT a few years ago) not included there. There are also loads of schools playing in the development cups.

Have a league 1st half of season and the cups in the second half of season.

The schools you mention-Pauls, Navan and Mt Temple either don't play rugby or have gone seriously down hill in recent years. I don't think Navan made the semis ever, i think they may have got to the quarters a couple of years after i left school.

Zaga were in the league until this year when they were asked to pull out because they wanted 8 automatic qualifiers for the cup. Zaga have won the league 2 times in the last 5 years and were deemed the most acceptable choice(despite the fact that they have never reached the semis of the cup). Castleknock were in the league when i played in it and were decent but they like Zaga were told not to enter anymore. Since then they have gone downhill.

The league is terrible for a team with aspirations of winning or doing well in the cup. Some teams give up after a loss and focus on the Vinny Murray alternative in January. Others who take it seriously may win the comp but peak far to early. The 8 automatic have a distinct advantage to league schools, where as we started training in early August for the league, my friends in rock didn't start to train until a month after us. They can experiment throughout the year where as we could rarely do so. Playing against the likes of CUS, we would play the full team because it was a proper competative match. Then most of our 'friendlies' were against the likes of Rock and Michaels where you could ill afford to experiment.

And btw their is definately a two tier league in terms of standard- the likes of CBC, Zaga, Roscrea, Kilkenny and Roscrea almost always give the 'big 6' good games and win more than their fair share. The league definately hampers them imo.

NaiveMelodies

Tim Robbins wrote: »

I thought the big six would get decent games from the likes Gonzaga, Newbridge, Monkstown, Andrews, Mt Temple, Castlenock etc?

you thought wrong buddie, gonzaga/newbridge mite keep scores to around a 15/20 point difference but the others would not have a hope.

NaiveMelodies

Tim Robbins wrote: »

Got this from leinsterfans.com.


So that means: no Castelnock, no Gonzaga, no Terenure, no Belvo, no Michaels, no Rock, no Clongows.

That's a bit mad. So the aforementioned train their guts out and might only 1 competitive fixture maybe 2 or 3 if they get a good cup run.

trust me, the pre-season friendlies are extremely competitive, and dont believe otherwise.

by the way, you left out a major player in schools rugby in your list!

spillit67

only1stevo wrote: »

you thought wrong buddie, gonzaga/newbridge mite keep scores to around a 15/20 point difference but the others would not have a hope.

Did Monkstown not beat Michaels by 30 points in the cup last year, Kilkenny beat Rock 2 years back and even 'shock horror' CUS run your precious Marys to within a few points a couple years back too? I read your comment on another thread too. Its clear that while Marys Class of 08 produced some good rugby players they sorely lacked anyone with any degree of humour. Stop trolling mate, your making your school look like muppets.

RugbyFanatic

spillit67 wrote: »

Did Monkstown not beat Michaels by 30 points in the cup last year, Kilkenny beat Rock 2 years back and even 'shock horror' CUS run your precious Marys to within a few points a couple years back too? I read your comment on another thread too. Its clear that while Marys Class of 08 produced some good rugby players they sorely lacked anyone with any degree of humour. Stop trolling mate, your making your school look like muppets.

As had already been stated the odd year they may have a competitive team but 9 years out of 10 it will be an absolute joke.

And did Marys not demolish Monkstown in return?

Also what has a sense of humour got to do with rugby? Marys had far and away the best team last year and definitely played the best rugby. They had a legit try disallowed in the final and lost out by one kick that unfortunately was just wide of the posts they were certainly the best team in that competition sense of humour or not.

Some good rugby players? Crotty and Mcgrath are two of the hottest prospects in Irish youth rugby right now whilst Hudson and O'Neill are considered fantastic prospects. Marys were the most repersented team on this years Leinster U19s by the way.

NaiveMelodies

spillit67 wrote: »

Did Monkstown not beat Michaels by 30 points in the cup last year, Kilkenny beat Rock 2 years back and even 'shock horror' CUS run your precious Marys to within a few points a couple years back too? I read your comment on another thread too. Its clear that while Marys Class of 08 produced some good rugby players they sorely lacked anyone with any degree of humour. Stop trolling mate, your making your school look like muppets.

haha mate im i was in terenure and certainly have no alliances to marys. i just think its hilariuos the way some people talked up cbc and the consequent hammering they got.
remember that try your big 6 scored?? oh no wait he didnt...

i also think its hilarious the way some people are now ignoring marys as members of the big 6, the fact is this thread is thrawling with sore cbc fans who havnt a clue about the game

figs86

RugbyFanatic wrote: »

Marys had far and away the best team last year and definitely played the best rugby. They had a legit try disallowed in the final and lost out by one kick that unfortunately was just wide of the posts

Marys were the most talented team but were outplayed in the final - you can camp all day on the line but if you cant get over it, well then isnt the other teams defence playing better than your attack?

few people could tell whether the try was legit or not and they were all on the pitch
oh and a ''just wide kick'' is also known as a ''miss''

spillit67

RugbyFanatic wrote: »

As had already been stated the odd year they may have a competitive team but 9 years out of 10 it will be an absolute joke.

And did Marys not demolish Monkstown in return?

Also what has a sense of humour got to do with rugby? Marys had far and away the best team last year and definitely played the best rugby. They had a legit try disallowed in the final and lost out by one kick that unfortunately was just wide of the posts they were certainly the best team in that competition sense of humour or not.

Some good rugby players? Crotty and Mcgrath are two of the hottest prospects in Irish youth rugby right now whilst Hudson and O'Neill are considered fantastic prospects. Marys were the most repersented team on this years Leinster U19s by the way.

I believe that Marys won that match playing exactly the same type of negative rugby that Belvo did in the final. Didn't Marys win by two trys? One scored in the last play and another as alluded to monkstown try stopped by a wonder tackle on the line. I could have sworn that Monkstown had a lot of leinster players too, 5 or 6 if iirc. The fact is that while Marys may have had the better side, monkstown were hardly bad themselves. I think that Gary Foley and that 6 Grannell are some pretty hot prospects themselves, monkstown had 3 players in the Ireland u19s team last year-the most of any school in ireland. I like most of the neutral monkstown supporters believe they peaked to soon-and btw the best display of running rugby was clearly the cbc-michaels match. That was one of the most sensational performances i ever saw in schools rugby on the tv.

only1stevo wrote: »

haha mate im i was in terenure and certainly have no alliances to marys. i just think its hilariuos the way some people talked up cbc and the consequent hammering they got.
remember that try your big 6 scored?? oh no wait he didnt...

i also think its hilarious the way some people are now ignoring marys as members of the big 6, the fact is this thread is thrawling with sore cbc fans who havnt a clue about the game

Terenure-well then congratulations to them for producing such a rounded person. I went to Roscrea btw. Your talking crap mate-you said that 'maybe zaga or newbridge could hole the big 6 to 15-20 losses' on a regular basis. Well this year i was at our q-final versus Belvo, i think we lost by 3 points. We never lose to big 6 teams by that much of a margin often, that has to be very rare indeed. We reached the final and a semis in the last 10 years, beating big 6 schools. Take a look at all the cup results of recent years, yes there has been a few hammerings but by and large the results are close beween the top tier of league schools and the 'big 6'. There is an undeniable gap there, but that is a physcological one and also the fact that big 6 teams have a far more cushy season. I played on the semi final Roscrea team, i'd be suprised if only1stevo ever picked up a rugby ball in his life. You think its hilarious that 'cbc fans who havnt a clue about the game' are on here, well clearly you don't have a clue yourself because the only 2 schools you sighted Newbridge and Zaga of been within a few points of you 'elite' chaps are completely wrong. Newbridge have been in decline for the past few years and Zaga have never beaten a big 6 team or ever reached the semis of the cup.

tughfc

some of the stupid needless talking that go's on in threads about schools rugby!
will you all just get over it and start making some relevant conversation's!
its all about oh my school is better then yours, sure most of you have left school!
i have no problem about people praising there rugby team's but to start saying stuff about other school's is just immature!

quirkster

Black and white our banners stream, ever more Roscrea

Roscrea 'till I die,
Class of '08

Crash

Thats great, nobody cares. Thread locked. Use the new Senior cup thread.