Madam, – With the schools’ rugby season underway, I wonder yet again why the Leinster Schools Rugby Cup has to be a knockout system from the outset at both Junior Cup and Senior Cup levels? In professional rugby tournaments like the Heineken Cup, players get a few bites at the cherry with pools and qualifying on points.
Why then can schoolboys, who put their hearts and souls into preparing for the cup all winter, not be given a chance to play at least a few games in a pool before being knocked out?
Apart from giving all teams more games, it might give traditionally weaker schools a better chance to advance and would even produce more revenue for the game. – Yours, etc,