The Sean Stratton Cup Final was held on Saturday 28th April in Kirwan Park, the home of De la Salle Palmerston. 21 teams participated over three weekends from Ulster, Leinster and Connaught in a blitz format competition.
Clontarf U16s had not played together in the club since two seasons ago (U14s) when they were runners up in the Leinster Schools Youth League. A few new faces together with most of the old ones assembled as a virtual ‘scratch team’ for this tournament. The first weekend involved 4 games back to back for ‘Tarf U16s and the final weekend included a quarter final, semi-final and final. Clontarf saw off challenges from St. Marys, Corinthians, Skerries, Mullingar, Old Wesley and North Kildare over the two weekends to lift the cup on Saturday afternoon.
Graham Cooke of DLSP and his team put in a huge effort to arrange the tournament and did an outstanding job. The tournament was designed to bring Schools Junior Cup players back to their clubs with a view to playing in U17s competitions next season. Our sincere thanks go out to Graham and all those involved in planning the tournament.
Sean Stratton is the ‘father’ of Mini/Youth Rugby in Leinster having been instrumental in its development during the 1960s. It is fitting that this competition contributes to club rugby by relaxing Leinster Rules to allow JCT players participate. As many JCT players enter transition year they will rejoin their club mates and take up where they left of in mini rugby.