Leinster Schools Junior Cup
The Leinster Schools Junior Challenge Cup is an under-age rugby union competition for schools affiliated to the Leinster Branch of the IRFU.
Competition is confined to students under the age of 16. The cup is held every January - March with the final in late March. It is usually seen as a good forecast as who will win the Leinster Schools Senior Cup in the following years.
The first recorded Junior Cup was held in 1909 where St. Andrew's College edged out Belvedere to take the "inaugural" cup. There is speculation that the competition was in existence before this but there are no surviving records to prove this.
Like the Senior Cup the competition is now dominated by the "big 6" rugby schools (Blackrock, Belvedere, Terenure, St Marys, Clongowes Wood and St Michaels). While Castleknock College is in forth place with 8 wins, its last win was 1966. Presentation College Bray has recorded 5 wins, however their last win was in 1990. Only 12 schools have lifted the Junior Cup, compared to the Senior Cup where 17 schools have won the title. However in the last 20 years, Gonzaga, Newbridge, Pres Bray, Castleknock and Wesley have contested the final.
St Michael's has the distinction of being runners up in 5 finals in a row (2007-2012), they were eventual winners in their 6th final in a row in 2012.
Blackrock College have the most victories (46), followed by Belvedere College (17) with Terenure College the next best (10). Despite the domination of the rugby schools the Cup is much less prone to "runs" of victories by a single school, the longest being Belvedere's 4 (1916-1919) and Blackrock's 4 (1979-1982)
To date only five schools have achieved the almost mythical Senior and Junior Cup "double". These are Blackrock, who have achieved this feat 23 times (1910, 1912, 1927, 1933, 1935–36, 1942–43, 1945, 1948, 1953–54, 1956–57, 1962, 1964, 1981–82, 1986–87, 1995, 2004, 2006), St Michaels (2012), Belvedere (2005), Terenure (1958) and Castleknock (1920). Since the Junior Cup records began, only the decade of the 1970s did not produce a double.
Read more about Leinster Schools Junior Cup: Performance By School, 1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s
Famous quotes containing the words schools, junior and/or cup:
“The schools begin with what they call the elements, and where do they end?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Never burn bridges. Today’s junior prick, tomorrow’s senior partner.”
—Kevin Wade, U.S. screenwriter, and Mike Nichols. Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver)
“Sisters define their rivalry in terms of competition for the gold cup of parental love. It is never perceived as a cup which runneth over, rather a finite vessel from which the more one sister drinks, the less is left for the others.”
—Elizabeth Fishel (20th century)