Schools Cup 2016

[Beattiespastie]

My money is on CCB..... but close call as RBAI looking really strong! .... On a side note ... Chuckle you going to MEDS semi at Roughfort?.... That will be a good wee game too close to call..

[Russ]

Russ- I reckon one of those pesky Belfast schools that you possibly didn't attend will win the Schools cup mate....... at Ravenhill....I would have thought 17 000 + posts since 2012 would have empowered you to offer more than standard trolling but....

You're awfully wound up for a man with no reason to be

Be interesting to see how many of these players make it. Or are they all after the CV enhancement?


Tehehehehe

[Blow in]

Lads who drop out of rugby do so for various reasons...injury, moving away to college, not interested anymore as they have other priorities commitments etc. School Cup final belongs at Ravenhill/Kingspan. Paddy Jackson captaining Ulster today... Excellent !

If I was forced into the schedules MCB and Inst are to get to Ravenhill I'd walk away too

The kids and parents know what those schools expect of them its one of the reasons they go there. Its no different to the Daily Mail cup in England or the other Irish provincial schools competitions, the kids at the most sucesfull schools put in the effort.

I would say that there were more people in attendance at these 1/4 games than there would have been at any of the Ulster A home games this season

[Blow in]

My money is on CCB..... but close call as RBAI looking really strong! .... On a side note ... Chuckle you going to MEDS semi at Roughfort?.... That will be a good wee game too close to call..

Hopefully the weather dosent play a part as it gets awful windy up there.

[Beattiespastie]

Blow in- dead cert it will be blowing a gale and pishing down at some stage! Two good young teams so it should be a good game.

[ChuckleBrothers]

Latest odds from Patrick Power as of 16/1/16...in brackets odds on 14/1/16...

Bit of MCB punting by the looks of it...

CCB 5/4 (6/5)
RBAI 13/8 (7/4)
Ballymena 5/1 (5/1)
CAI 7/1 (6/1)
MCB 8/1 (20/1)
Wallace 9/1 (9/1)
Rainey 10/1 (10/1)
Ballyclare 33/1 (33/1)
Sullivan 50/1 (50/1)

Latest odds

CCB - Evens
RBAI - 11/10
Ballymena - 5/1
Dalriada - 14/1

[fuzzylogic]

Its absolutely breaking my heart to say this and hopefully it will be the first and last time I ever say this..... but I agree with Russ on the issue (the issue that he created for no reason at all)

I do have first hand experience of playing schools cup rugby and am friends with a couple of URs current YDOs.

"Country" schools in general produce rugby players.

The "big Belfast schools" gear everything towards winning the schools cup, and for a lot of the players are pushed so hard in the schools they are done with rugby when they leave.

Hence the disproportion of UR players not coming from the Inst/MCB/CCB's.

The country schools also have a lot better links with their local rugby clubs, a lot of the boys around Armagh, Coleraine, etc etc will head out the odd evening and train a bit with their age grade team at the local club. I know the bigger schools around the Belfast are ban their players from doing this.

There is a culture issue within the schools rugby that UR are trying to address, but at present the schools (and a lot of the parents) purely drive schools cup, schools cup.

[Blow in]

Its absolutely breaking my heart to say this and hopefully it will be the first and last time I ever say this..... but I agree with Russ on the issue (the issue that he created for no reason at all)

I do have first hand experience of playing schools cup rugby and am friends with a couple of URs current YDOs.

"Country" schools in general produce rugby players.

The "big Belfast schools" gear everything towards winning the schools cup, and for a lot of the players are pushed so hard in the schools they are done with rugby when they leave.

Hence the disproportion of UR players not coming from the Inst/MCB/CCB's.

The country schools also have a lot better links with their local rugby clubs, a lot of the boys around Armagh, Coleraine, etc etc will head out the odd evening and train a bit with their age grade team at the local club. I know the bigger schools around the Belfast are ban their players from doing this.

There is a culture issue within the schools rugby that UR are trying to address, but at present the schools (and a lot of the parents) purely drive schools cup, schools cup.

I understand what your saying but I would throw in a few facts/opinions

Inst have a good link up with Instonians, and there are a good number of pupils from the last few seasons plying their trade for Insts 1st XV, Malone and Belfast Quins. Hoiwever a large amount go to Universities in England/Scotland

Its actual IRFU policy that dictates wether kids can train/play for their local club, so if your son or daughter is playing twice a week at school do they need further training at a club?. There is a release form that your school have to sign which states you do not get enough rugby at school.
Also youth grade Rugby isnt particularly big in belfast, Harlequins only have U12, Malone and Inst have youth rugby but dont get to play much, why, because most of their mini players have moved to one of the Belfast schools.


The culture issue for me is that if you go to one of the Belfast schools you find yourself at a disadvantage, as the Ulster age grades seem to be loathe to select them.

An example would be this years Medallion shield semi between RBAI and MCB, they have both dominated that respective age grade for the last 4 seasons howevr they are about 5 players maximum who are training at the Academy, Which is disproportainatley low considering the succes they have had.

How much more are players at the "big" schools pushed?

IIRC the RBAI 1 XV train twice a week (3 if there is no game on saturday) with 2 additional gym sessions.

Look at the big schools in Leinster/Munster they are no different.

Although not educated in NI my old school won the daily mail cup 6 years on the bounce 1995-2000, and at one stage had over 30 past pupils playing in the Aviva premiership (Callum Black is an ex pupil). So it seems transition from "big" schools in England is succesful why is it different in NI?

[colind]

I think one of the main problems that's already been referred to is the number of pupils from the rugby playing schools that head to university 'across the water'. The fact that we have only two universities in NI means that these pupils are forced to look elsewhere for their choice of course. This takes them out of the local rugby scene and they generally are lost to the local club game. I know that in recent years both Queens & UU have offered sports scholarships to try to retain the sporting best but these are relatively few in number and as far as I'm aware, to receive such a scholarship you have to already have representative honours.

Obviously in GB & RoI there is greater university choice and less liklihood of pupils having to cross a stretch of sea to further their academic progress.

[pwrmoore]

I think one of the main problems that's already been referred to is the number of pupils from the rugby playing schools that head to university 'across the water'. The fact that we have only two universities in NI means that these pupils are forced to look elsewhere for their choice of course. This takes them out of the local rugby scene and they generally are lost to the local club game. I know that in recent years both Queens & UU have offered sports scholarships to try to retain the sporting best but these are relatively few in number and as far as I'm aware, to receive such a scholarship you have to already have representative honours.

Obviously in GB & RoI there is greater university choice and less liklihood of pupils having to cross a stretch of sea to further their academic progress.

Is the proportion of Pupils from Inst/CCB/MCB going across the water to Uni really much greater than from the other schools? Genuinely interested to know. I never got the impression that they were any different.

[big mervyn]

Campbell and (to a lesser extent] Inst and MCB would have more pupils from the higher socio-economic groups than many state grammars and some voluntary grammars - the old "Cream of Ulster" jibe.

This would undoubtedly have some impact on university destination, especially now that higher fees and minimal grants combine to deter less well-off students from going across the water.

[Rooster]

Thing about a smaller country school is they have to depend more on skill than just picking the biggest strongest lumps available

[Blow in]

Thing about a smaller country school is they have to depend more on skill than just picking the biggest strongest lumps available

[Russ]

Thing about a smaller country school is they have to depend more on skill than just picking the biggest strongest lumps available

Awaits the Chuckle Brothers

[LegsLikeSausages]

Thing about a smaller country school is they have to depend more on skill than just picking the biggest strongest lumps available

My experience would be exactly the opposite. The schools with fewer players tend to pick the 15 biggest lumps at their disposal; those with a larger player base are able to pick more skilful players if the coach chooses to, the style of rugby will therefore depend on the coach.