January 28th, 2013 
Rob 
Ten things we learned from the Ulster Bank All Ireland Junior Cup this weekend. – By Rob Murphy
1. Once again, the two finalists can be counted among the best Junior sides in the country. The fledgling competition is only seven year’s old but it is rapidly establishing itself as a major mark in the calendar. Big crowds in Kanturk and Clogher Valley highlight as much.
2. Those who argue that the Leinster Junior league is the strongest of the four have more evidence from this year’s competition. While Newbridge and Coolmine came up short in Clogher Valley, the Towns Cup champions Enniscorthy certainly showed their metal and Tullamore proved far too strong for Kanturk, Monivea and Ballymoney on their way to the final.
3. Enniscorthy are back, just in time for more cup fun, we had a sense of that before the weekend after they racked up 37 points in Dundalk but weren’t brave enough to call an away win at the weekend. They pounced early with two Ivan Jacob tries, withstood a strong surge and struck late to seal a brilliant win at the home of the reigning Ulster League champions.
4. Tullamore are hungry for everything (watch out Towns Cup contenders). Teams targeting the All Ireland league in recent years – Skerries, Seapoint and Boyne – all exited this competition without producing their best but the Offaly men don’t hold back in the Midland’s League, so why should that change in the All Ireland Cup.
5. Anyone who thinks this competition is a calendar headache and should be curtailed shouldn’t have any say in the future of club rugby. The buzz in Kanturk town all week was a huge boost to the club. Flags out, upwards of 50 stewards helping on the day, a free bus service from the town, a marquee at the clubhouse, pre match lunch, IRFU president down for visit, half the town getting soaked in the wind watching their local heroes. Reduce it in size? how can we make it bigger? more like.
6. Enniscorthy’s pack can mix it with the best. The reason why many wrote them off before Saturday was because Clogher are a massive side and the weather was suited to them yet here we are talking about a ‘scorthy win.
7. Wexford rugby has some good news stories of late. To start with, there’s the Division 3 title for Wexford Wanderers, fifth tier sure but it’s a sign the men from the county town are on the way back. Then you had ‘scorthy’s heroics setting up a mouthwatering All Ireland final pairing in their first ever foray into the event and to cap it off, Gorey caused the upset of the weekend by ousting Dundalk in the Towns Cup.
8. Your Editor is off his game on predictions (some would say that is his game!)
9. Someone needs to invent a wind proof umbrella.
10. The IRFU have no intention of opening up their most prized venues to the club game anytime soon. The days of the club rugby finals at Lansdowne Road are ones that the next generation will marvel at “They let amateur players play in the national stadium?! really? on the same pitch that Brian O’Driscol played on? wow, that’s nuts.” they’ll say.
Caption: Action from Clogher Valley and Enniscorthy in Saturday’s Ulster Bank All Ireland Junior Cup semi final. Pic: Clogher Valley RFC Website.
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great article rob. id have to say the ail junior cup has just grown and grown each year. its great travelling to clubs in different parts of the country and meeting new people.
id have to worry about the rumour that the irfu see it as somewhat of an inconvenience and are thinking about reducing it in size. its obvious the irfu dont want to put much resources or effort into it. last year was the first time that they didnt hold the senior final on the same day and in the same venue as the junior final and this year its apparently being held in cill dara rfc! a bit of a come down from dubarry park and thats no offence to cill dara rfc!
I was lucky enough to play in the all ireland junior cup a few times, with a club not in with a shout of winning it – they are memorable occasions and a boost for your domestic season if you’re trying to get into ‘europe’ and out of league contention. bring the final to the landsdowne
I agree this competition is one of the shining lights of club rugby. Speaking as a junior player in connaught, it keeps clubs interested after Monivea claim their title year after year. Although I would like to see it extended to some sorta round robin
Here is a theory. Could the IRFU be reluctant to make Junior rugby too attractive from the perspective that senior players may be more inclined to downgrade to the local Junior club thus reducing the strength of the senior clubs? Hence why a flagship competitition like the AIJC might be shelved? I played in this competition several times and even have the honour of a winners medal. One of my rugby career highlights, but best part of competition is to visit clubs outside of our province and to receive other teams we never would otherwise play against.
id say the irfu are definitely a bit apprehensive about the junior cup becoming more prestigious than the ail or ail senior cup. plenty of players i know that play in the ail are certainly very envious of the junior cup and the huge crowd and excitement that it creates.
how many ail games had half of the crowd that was in kanturk last sat??
the irfu are a joke at the minute, they are summed up by the michael bent fiasco where a player was given two irish caps because someone thought he might be good enough and he was a kiwi so he has to be great at rugby. Decent club men and excellent props like henry hurley and peter bracken must be livid. Even jamie hagan should have got the call before bent. its a joke and a complete farce.
The irfu each year are moving further and further away from the club game. i can see a day not too far off when the round robin playoff for the ail will be scrapped because no junior team that wins any of the provincial leagues wants to go senior!!
bringing the ail junior cup final to cill dara really does sum up what they think of the competition.
As someone involved in a senior club i see a lot of potential in the AIJC. AIL 2A and 2B should be abolished and the leagues regionalised. An expanded All Ireland cup could then provide that novelty element of big games, travel and welcoming teams to your home club. As it stands, every club is struggling and even the newly promoted clubs soon find it an slog. An All Ireland cup with regional leagues would be the best of both worlds, local rivalries plus occasional travel and hosting of big cup games.
If 2A and 2B were to be got rid of. An idea could be to get the 6 best teams from each province and have them enter into the all ireland junior cup. Then play it off in heineken cup style tournament. 6 groups, 4 teams per group and play home and away. Top 6 from each group and 2 best runners up. That would give teams a min of 6 games in the tournament and max of 9. Play the final in the aviva, wish full thinking i know. Or play it in a neutral provinces best ground, thomond/musgrave, sportsground, ravenhill or donnybrook/rds
If 2a and 2b were wound up all clubs would be senior
And that would mean bigger crowds less expense
Sportsground is nit connachts best ground. Dubarry park is
Dubbary Park is in Leinster even if Buccaneers play in the Connact leagues.
Dubarry Park is home to connachts top ranked club. Put that in your pipe and smoke it Pat.
Dubarry park could be called the Dutch gold pipe express next week if the cash was right, smoke that…. What was it called before bubarry park again??
Dr Jim Keane park is the correct name for it.
They might have owned Dr Jim Keane Park, but they own nothing now, IRFU the main pitch and the Banks the rest. Connachts Premier club vying with Galways Premier club to see which will be the 1st into NAMA.
NAMA me arse.
Monivea is connacht premier junior club and there already in NaMa
Buccs don’t owe the banks anything. Sold a pitch at the right time.
And the reason we look after the main pitch is because it brings in money. Something that is required to run the top ranked club in Connacht Rugby.
Its called smart business.
Look after the main pitch????? Any rain at all and the 3 pitches are flooded and unplayable.