Impossible to separate the usual suspects

It's a Sunday in winter, it's Donnybrook, every vantage point from pitch-side to the rafters has been claimed, decibel levels soar and the old ground is festooned in colour - welcome to the start of the business end of the Leinster Schools' Senior Cup.

Tomorrow, it is the pupils - past and present - of Blackrock and St Mary's Colleges that will cram into ever nook and cranny enduring 70 minutes of nerve-shredding anxiety.

To distort the analogy presented by Liverpool's legendary former manager Bill Shankly, "schools rugby, it's not a matter of life and death. It's much more important than that."

That sentiment is not the parody it should be for some. And if that's the attitude of the respective supporters, what must the feeling be of those who cross the whitewash? Four months of blood, sweat and fears distilled into 70 minutes.

For one team, the next examination will involve a paper and pen, for those on the losing side who are in sixth year, it's a hugely unfulfilling cameo.

Sit down any male adult, right into their dotage, who played schools rugby and he'll probably tell you who beat them at junior and senior level, the scores in the matches and the name of the guy who did the damage at full back.

Things may change - like the format of the competition - but the intensity remains. Gordon D'Arcy survived the trauma of defeat to go on and celebrate a schools' Senior Cup success at Clongowes.

"It's so hard to describe how hollow you feel after a defeat," he said. "I remember losing a Junior Cup semi-final to Blackrock and wondering whether the sun was going to rise the following morning. Losing at school hurts as much as a European Cup match.

"As you get older, you learn to adapt a little better, but I lost a schools final before winning another. At senior level, it (schools rugby) consumes you.

"From the moment you enter school as a 13-year-old with a love of the sport, all you want to do is play in a Senior Cup final at Lansdowne Road.

"When the draw comes out you look to see who you'll be playing against and mixed in with the excitement is the fear.

"The senior team trains if the pitch is frozen, it trains if the pitch is waterlogged. It dominates your life and then, one morning, if you have lost, it's gone.

"By and large my experiences were very positive and that came down to the coaches at Clongowes and also the friendships that I made with players in other schools.

"I know that's not the case in all schools and that the pressure and expectation can be destructive. It's about striking a balance."

Last season, the Leinster Schools' Senior Cup underwent a transformation with the addition of Section C, thereby providing a stepped progression from the fledgling rugby schools in Section A through the middle tier of Section B (Vincent Murray Cup) and finally the arrival to the arena of the elite in Section C.

It would be churlish not to regard it as a positive restructuring, but the short-term effect - if there is to be a change at all in the future - won't widen the pool of potential winners.

This season it's no different as the usual culprits posture for supremacy. For the neutral, and there are few of those, it should be a pretty open competition, albeit confined to the elite.

Blackrock, St Mary's, Clongowes, St Michael's, defending champions Terenure, Belvedere and the dark horses and league champions, The King's Hospital, are the main protagonists.

Whatever the competition throws forward, there are aspects that need to be addressed - not least officiating.

Given the weekend in question many of Ireland's top referees will be on Heineken European Cup and Parker Pen Challenge Cup duties, so whomever takes charge of the Blackrock-St Mary's match will be a relatively novice.

The old axiom that "we all have to start somewhere", was not coined with a schools match in front of 6,500 screaming fans in mind.

Refereeing is difficult enough without being constrained by the parameters that prevail at schools level. The schools game, at SCT level, must embrace the red and yellow cards. Too often teams are content to kill ball in the knowledge that the ultimate sanction is a penalty.

It's the old seven points or three chestnut. Faced with being reduced to 14 players, the deliberate transgression doesn't seem as attractive.

In the instance of foul play, a yellow card would act as a deterrent, allowing a player to cool down or be spoken to by his coach, without suffering the ignominy of being sent off.

Referees also deserve to receive some meaningful co-operation to better police the match. The pace of the game is very quick and there is nothing more galling for players than poor officiating to prove decisive.

Still, schools rugby has that unmistakable allure, showcasing the future talent of Irish rugby and providing some of the most memorable matches of this or any other season.

There won't be the traditional St Patrick's Day finale to the Senior Cup as Test match rugby intervenes, the final instead down for decision on March 14th.

And what of a winner? Tomorrow's game is too close to call. The winner is by no means guaranteed to beat King's Hospital, who should beat St Gerard's.

Belvedere might beat CBC Monkstown and St Paul's, but lose to Mary' s/'Rock/King's Hos.

In the easier top half, Terenure should edge past Pres Bray, but may not beat St Michael's, who might surprise Clongowes. The finalist will come from that quarter of the draw.

Eh, did I mention it's a very open year in terms of a winner?

I want CBC Monkstown to win.