who will win the junior cup?

funky monkey

i amnt sure who will win the junior cup this year.last year it was real close between belvo nd da gick.but there is the fact that rock had a weak team but will probably comeback this year with a strong team!!!what do u think?

Kelly101

How about no. Michaels r the only team 2 do it this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

RuggieBear

ok you pair.......you seriously have to stop with the rtrd spk or you will be banned.

Stormfox1020

Newbridge College with ease.

ratboy

A more appropiate question is why these, underage, low quality competions get so much space in our national newspapers.

goin'_to_the_PS

rugby sigh, for the sake of taking a side, marys

RuggieBear

because they are major sporting events

ratboy

RuggieBear wrote:

because they are major sporting events

You don't have a great understanding of major sporting events then. A pile of self-important 15year olds, playing rugby in Donnybrrok infront of their boozed up class mates should be reserved for maybe a small section in the local papers.

electric69

As a rugby fan and player i am going to agree with ratboy on this one.it is completly over hyped.its junior level and doesnt desere the coverage it gets. it is nothing more exciting than one can see on any match day in rugby clubs throughout the country.the senior rugby however,deserves to be shown on tv.its a great day in the amature sporting calendar.

RuggieBear

You obviously have no understanding of a cup rugby match. Have you ever been to one?

These games are major sporting events in ireland, consistently getting crowds of over 1000. The finals get crowds near 20,000. Is that not worthy of a couple of pages in the broadsheets

electric69

If the crowds were made up of more than mammy's and daddy's and all the rugger huggers(which we all love ) and basically people from outside dublin then it would be worthy of national recognition.but its not..its basically just the rugby communtiy in dublin, and the surrounding area's who make up the crowds.

RuggieBear

Oh and i always enjoyed reading my name in print

electric69

RuggieBear wrote:

Oh and i always enjoyed reading my name in print

I have always enjoyed the after match sessions attended by all of the very sexy ladies.still doesnt mean a junior match should be national news.maybe all the hotties that attend the match should have their pics put up instead on the match report
Rugby is a tough game....killing a few people on a pitch for a while then go to the local for a few scoops followed by gettin your rock and roll with some hottie...tough game but somebody's gotta do it

ratboy

i've regularly been to one and the atmosphere is brilliant but the rugby is not.

Amz

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but don't all of the schoolboy soccer leagues get coverage in the national newspapers too?

This kind of coverage is great for the promotion of the game, in Dublin and around the country. Anything that serves to encourage more people to get involved in a sport/physical activity, either as a supporter, or participant is good in my book.

If you don't want to read about the Junior cup nobody is forcing you to. Just skip over that section.

ratboy

Gerry Thornley and all the top sportswrites from the independent and the times write about the junior cup. Joe Bloggs from the Daily Star writes about school boy soccer.

Amz

That's not the fault of rugby, or the junior cup. The top soccer writers obviously don't feel as strongly about their sport to dedicate column inches to its coverage and/or promotion.

Its also an indication of the type of person who reads the Star as opposed to the Irish Times, or the Irish Independent.

ratboy

or else they recognise that 15 year olds play at a pretty crap level.

Amz

As opposed to the fifteen year old schoolboy soccer players who are destined to earn mega bucks playing professionally somewhere because of the immense talents they posess?

ratboy

what are you on about? You can't disguise the fact that the Junior and Senior Cup are overhyped.

Amz

In what way are they overhyped?

Nobody is expecting, or trying to suggest that the standard of rugby is comparable to international/provincial senior rugby.

Nobody is forcing you to buy, or even read the coverage of these competitions in the paper!

The people who read the coverage are often past pupils of the rugby playing schools, or players from junior and senior cup. Alumni etc. The papers would not continue to provide the column inches every year if people weren't interested in reading it!

These people attend matches, provide sponsorship etc. to the teams and continue to do so year in year out. Most of it is due to the tradition of schools rugby in this country. There is a great loyalty there, not seen in other sports.

Soccer is not supported in nearly the same way. I doubt many, if any, of the top soccer writers in this country would attend a match between their former underage clubs/school teams let alone bother writing about it. The average reader of The Star or the Sun wouldn't be bothered, they're more interested in Wayne Rooney's latest sending off, or what colour thong David Beckham is currently wearing.

The only reason I feel the media attention is bad for the game is because of the amount of publicity these young lads are getting without any kind of preparation etc. It can be a lot of pressure to put on them at such a young age.

Funkstard

I don't know about the JC, but I would bet my house that Blackrock will win the SC again this year. There's 4/5 Ireland schools players in the back line alone

Stormfox1020

Im my opinion ratboys attitude is the exact thing that is holding Ireland back to be a great rugby nation ala New Zealand or Austrailia. It is important to take interest in the youth game as they will form the Irish team of tommorow. Rugby at any level in New Zealand is held in high regard. We need to ditch the negative attitude and embrace a posistive one.

D-Generate

Place-Kicker. Junior Cup Final. Lots of Pressure..... It is great to see the rugby community in Ireland so dedicated to rugby at all levels other than just International but the pressure put on some of the Junior Cup players is unbelievable. They usually don't have the maturity or cool-head that a Senior player will have so playing in front of many thousands at that age is quite unnerving.
Thats not to say that I don't think they should be covered. It helps rugby massively by garnering new interest in the sport. It encourages many parents to send their kids to these schools after seeing the pride that the whole school and past pupils have. More players and interest is what any sport always needs to succeed.

As for the topic, in Munster I hope that Christians win. As for Leinster I will go for Belvo, of course no Leinster team would match Christians though

besty

Kelly101 wrote:

How about no. Michaels r the only team 2 do it this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

seconded!

Stompbox

D-Generate wrote:

As for the topic, in Munster I hope that Christians win. As for Leinster I will go for Belvo, of course no Leinster team would match Christians though

Leister will go to St.Olivers. Come on the Ollies. Seriously though we have a huge forward pack and pacy backs. And an excellent scrumhalf of course

RuggieBear

st ollies?

Funkstard

Unless that is a pseudonym for another school, St.Olivers do not compete in Leinster!

As for Michaels, who knows, maybe they can win one for a change instead of being constantly overhyped. They've never won a ****ing senior cup people. I don't know why they are considered to be in the top tier of schools rugby. This year anyway the team is mediocre at best