Rugby analyst and ex-All-Black Brent Popecasts an outsider's eye over the schools' rugby cup competitions

There is isn't a schools' rugby tournament in the world that can match the provincial schools' senior cups. It's absolutely unique. Nowhere, not even in my native New Zealand, is such passion and commitment displayed at school level. You won't find another schools' rugby final where 20,000 supporters will turn up on buses with banners and scarves. In New Zealand, which has roughly the same population as Ireland, you might get 4,000 or 5,000 at the final. You certainly wouldn't get bus loads of people filling Landsdowne week after week.

This commitment is good for the game. It puts talented players in the spotlight. However, the attention enjoyed by rugby schools and their top players, especially in Leinster, has its price for the players and for the game.

The emphasis on schools' rugby, in Leinster for example, has had a number of negative effects on the development of the tournament. It has become lopsided, with five or six schools dominating the competition. As a result, the school you go to dictates whether or not you play at this level. Good players in non-traditional rugby-playing schools are being missed.

I also find it curious that the winning school teams from each province never get to play each other, to establish a national senior cup winner. It may be to do with timetabling or some practical issue, but in most countries there is some competition to establish a national schools' champion.

Leinster rugby schools are currently looking at new structures for the tournament, based on the Heineken European Cup model, which would allow schools a longer run in the competition and create a new league for teams that are knocked out of the first 16.

I support any restructuring that casts the net wider and that allows non-traditional schools to compete with the Blackrocks and Terenure Colleges. Despite the good work of the talent scouts, Ireland's player depth is quite shallow. There's a need to unearth players from other schools. The more games that players get to play the better.

The current knock-out system is very tough on players. Because concentration on this competition is so great, some players focus all their efforts on it. These guys are training three nights a week - this one campaign becomes an obsession. Then if they're knocked out after one or two games they're stretched out on the pitch crying.

When a talented player experiences a year of pressure only to go into a campaign and lose after one match, he will often take a break from rugby after that. He's exhausted and drained at 18.

A lot of pressure is placed on winning rather than enjoyment of the game or the camaraderie of being part of a team. If the whole off-season is dedicated to training for the senior cup, the disappointment of losing is very hard to take. Young players can be haunted by the defeat for the rest of their lives. If they lose after all that pressure they don't know where to go from there. Many go on to college and leave the game altogether.

It's hard for coaches and parents because they don't want to steal a young person's dream. At the same time you have to be concerned for the player that gives everything and gets nothing.

On the plus side, the standing of the schools' competition means that successful players can go on the make a good living straight from school. Gordon D'Arcy was selected for Ireland while still at school, although he chose to wait. Luke Fitzgerald got his first cap a year after finishing his Leaving Cert. In my day, you wouldn't get a cap until you were at least 24. Now you can play from Ireland at 18 if you're physically able.

Becoming physically able at 18 years of age doesn't happen by accident. Extensive weights training is now part of the routine for senior cup teams and they're starting young. This is not new to rugby, just to Ireland. Traditionally in New Zealand players started conditioning earlier than their peers in Ireland. They were in the gym doing weights a year or two earlier. Here, the attitude was to let them develop naturally. That has changed. There's a realisation that to compete internationally you can't hang around until you're 17 and then start lifting weights.

Despite these criticisms, I applaud the schools' system and the support it receives from schools, parents and the media. It's peculiar to Ireland. It's like a mini-Cambridge or Oxford. It has some nice touches, though, and a lot of people besides the players get involved. Those leading the cheers at the games are as enthusiastic as the players sometimes. Those who accuse rugby schools of being obsessive probably haven't played the game themselves. Overall I think it's a healthy passion. It's certainly one of a kind.