Tullamore Rugby Club has lost its High Court battle to remain in division one of the ACC Bank Leinster League this season.
The Leinster branch of the IRFU relegated the club after it was penalised two points for failing to fulfil a fixture against Enniscorthy last season.
Tullamore had sought mandatory injunctions restraining the branch from demoting the club and publishing its official handbook, which fixed the club's fixtures in division two.
The High Court had been told that Tullamore, despite the two points deduction, would have remained in the first division on a points scored-conceded differential, but had been relegated following an appeal by Ashbourne RFC, which faced demotion if Tullamore stayed up.
Mr Justice Herbert, in a reserved judgment, refused the relief sought on the basis that the strength of Tullamore's case fell short of that required to obtain a mandatory injunction.
He said that if the court had jurisdiction to set aside a decision of a private sporting body on the basis that such a decision was perverse, that jurisdiction would only be exercised in a very clear and limited number of cases.
Tullamore had failed to establish that irreparable damage would be caused to the club by relegation. The judge said that if the Leinster branch was restrained from taking any steps to prepare for the forthcoming league competition there was a clear inference in the evidence presented on behalf of the branch that the league could not be played at all in the 2000/1 season. "The inconvenience to the Leinster branch and to the 39 other clubs of the league, who would not be able to play, must transcend any inconvenience suffered by Tullamore," he said.