Tomorrow we will know the clubs that will occupy the top four places in Division One of the All-Ireland League and which club will have to play to preserve their first-division status. The closing stages of the league section of the premier division have not been lacking in surprising results, and most certainly not without an element of controversy.
Are we about to see the Munster clubs' constant hold on the league title broken after a decade of dominance? Or could it be that two Munster clubs, Cork Constitution and Garryowen, will win their way into the knock-out stages, or can an Ulster team get to the semi-final for the first time? The closing sequence of matches certainly present an intriguing list of possibilities. Many an anxious ear will be attached to the radio tomorrow afternoon.
While Blackrock College have taken the second division title with some style, those who will accompany them into the two-tier premier division next season has yet to be decided. If UCD succeed it will mean that a university side will be playing in the premier grade for the first time. That would be a great achievement for UCD and would represent a timely boost to university rugby.
Then there is Belfast Harlequins. That is the club formed by the amalgamation of two old and renowned clubs, NIFC and Harlequins. The NIFC club had a great history and had been on the scene since before the formation of the first rugby administrative body in this country. If Harlequins make it to the first division it will mean that there will be three Ulster clubs in the top division and that has not happened since the inaugural season of the league when Ballymena, Malone and Instonians were all in the top grade.
Ballynahinch, Co Carlow and Midleton will all be playing in Division Two next season. That means a quick return to that league for Ballynahinch who were relegated last season and a new adventure for Carlow and Midleton, two clubs who, like Ballynahinch, came through from the junior ranks.
The Midleton club has made huge and impressive strides. Last season Midleton played for the first time in Division Four. They won that division and now have won promotion yet again. Barnhall, who came through to the league last season, is another club that has done extremely well to finish second in Division Four. Trinity just edged Barnhall out of the top spot and so will be hoping to make an impression next season.
One cannot forget the achievement of Naas in winning league status next season. Tremendous work has gone into the game in Naas and now the reward has come. The success of the club is a considerable boost for the game in the area. But in contrast to all those clubs who can look forward to the challenge of the league next season, one of Ireland's oldest and most renowned clubs, Queen's University, surrendered senior status.
Queen's departure follows that a few seasons ago of University College, Galway. Life is not easy for the universities in this professional era, but it is very sad to see clubs of such eminence gone from the scene which they adorned with such distinction and success for over a century. Professionalism apart, another problem for Queen's has been the number of rugby-playing students who now go to English and Scottish universities.
The contribution of the universities to Irish rugby has been truly immense through the years and while UCG cannot match Queen's in terms of the number of internationals supplied to Ireland, nonetheless some names readily come to mind. One thinks of Mick Molloy, Dickie Roche, Eamonn Maguire and most recently Neville Furlong. Ciaran Fitzgerald, Gerry McLoughlin, Seamus Dennison and Johnny Dooley were four more who wore the UCG colours with distinction. Winners of the Connacht Senior Cup on 34 occasions, they did much to keep the rugby flag flying in the west when times were hard.
The club produced some of the greatest players to wear the Ireland jersey. Queen's had two players on the first Ireland team to win at international level, John Taylor and John MacDonald, and indeed had been represented on the national team before that initial win achieved against Scotland in 1881. It was at Queen's that another great of Irish rugby, George Stephenson, honed his skills in the 1920s.
As a club, Queen's had immense success starting with a win in the Ulster Senior Cup in 1886, the year after the competition was inaugurated. They were the first winners of the Ulster Senior League 110 years ago. The team they produced in the period immediately after the second World War was surely one of the best club sides ever to grace the scene in this country. That side won the cup in 1947 and the league title four times in succession between 1947 and 1950.
In that period it was not unusual for Queen's to field teams that were mostly interprovincials and some internationals. It was the era of Des Monteith, Jack Kyle, Ernie Strahdee, Noel Henderson and Bill McKay. Kyle, Strathdee, Henderson and McKay were all Triple Crown winners in 1949 - Kyle, McKay and Strathdee Grand Slam winners in 1948.
In more recent times, one thinks of such players as Trevor Ringland, David Irwin, Nigel Carr and Philip Matthews, Triple Crown winners all. On a broader level Queen's University has had more players selected for the Lions (11) than any other Irish club. William Tyrrell was the first in 1910 in South Africa and then came Henry O'Hara O'Neill in Australia and New Zealand in 1930. They had three in the Lions side in South Africa in 1938 - Harry McKibbin, Blair Mayne and George Cromey. Kyle, Henderson and McKay travelled to Australia and New Zealand in 1950; Cecil Pedlow to South Africa in 1955; David Hewitt to Australia and New Zealand in 1959 and to South Africa in 1962; and Roger Young in Australia and New Zealand in 1966 and South Africa in 1968. There were others who had played for Queen's and went on Lions tours after leaving the university. The Queen's University club has a truly great history. Let us hope they will return to the senior scene.
