AIL 25/26

Great win over Lansdowne today, hope some nice celebrations.

See Barnhall beat Greystones too

Congrats, always have a soft spot for Barnhall. Shared with a lad who played there for a year, few years ago. Hard place to go and win, although always thought they lacked skills and were blood and guts, but think that has changed.

Great win for us, streaming quality was excellent. Defended really well and lovely ambition. Lots of our Under 20s played and played well, we are bringing through alot of those, prob more than other sides as a good few lads retired

We're bringing thru a few of last year's 20s too…they've stepped up really well so far. Great to see young lads taking their opportunity.

Does it leave clubs in 2C with nothing to play for in terms of promotion this season though? Can still win a league but with no promotion at the end of it. Seems a bit late to be announcing that with the season about to start.

Thanks for sharing that. Makes sense for next year on but for this season would be interested to know if there will be promotion/relegation playoffs in 2C or will first just win the league and all teams go into expanded 2B for 26/27 (bar team(s) relegated from 2C).

On the face of it, it could appear harsh.

You could also have a Junior club pop straight from Junior this year into 2A the year after.

Will mean there is no jeopardy in 2B this year & 2B/2C promotion relegation playoffs this year are dead rubbers even if played they have no significance.

But i suppose it's a one off adjustment year that is necessary to make a more sustainable year, clubs just have to suck it up.

The changes are decent in my opinion.

The outliner would be where Sligo would go, north or south division. Makes no difference travel wise over a season

So if it was happening now, the divisions would be something like this -

North - Rainey, Ballyclare, Harlequins, Malone, Clogher, Navan, Skerries, Malahide, Bective and Monkstown.

South - Sligo, Buccs, Wegians, Enniscorthy, Clonmel, Thomond, Bruff, Dolphin, Midleton, UL Bohs.

As was said, a lot of travel still for Sligo but there would always be a couple it won’t be ideal for.

UCD v Terenure

Thinking about the IRFU proposals on dividing by Geography - i don't think they go far enough.

Division 1 - 10 Teams

Division 2 (North and South) - 20 Teams (Current 1B and 2A)

Division 3 (North and South) - 20 Teams (Current 2B and 2C)

Division 1 becomes the Super League, clubs to be permitted to go semi pro if clubs want to go down this road but not a necessity, and there is still promotion and relegation between divisions 1, 2 and 3 and from 3 to Junior.

If they are going to go down the road of regionalising the leagues, they may as well do it for 2A and 1B as well and combine them. This will reduce travel costs for an even greater number of clubs.

Promotion / Relegation directly from 2 North to 3 North and 2 South to 3 South; Winner Up, Bottom Down, Playoff between 2nd Bottom and 2nd, 3rd, 4th as per playoff system now.

Winner of 2 North and South Play each other, winner goes up, loser plays 2nd bottom of Div 1.

Loser of 3 North and 3 South Playoff, Loser goes down replaced by winner of Junior Playoff Final, Winner plays loser of Junior Playoff Final.

Depending on makeup of promotions / relegations there would have to be some sideways movement between North and South, but this will be the case under the new proposals anyway.