Case of history repeating in a magnificent age-old rivalry

It was a time when nothing else mattered. An entire season’s toil and effort distilled into a handful of knockout schools’ cup matches, all geared towards making the final on St Patrick’s Day.

Frighteningly, four decades have passed — it feels slightly more palatable describing it that way than saying it’s more than 40 years — since I last experienced that special feeling, when CBC beat age-old rivals Pres in a Munster Schools’ Senior Cup match.

The fact that it was in the final itself and I was captain only served to make my last ever game of schools rugby an even more special and memorable experience.