Amid the usual blaze of publicity, the Leinster Schools' Senior Cup kicked off last Sunday in Donnybrook, where sizeable crowds will gather for matches throughout the month. However, it was no coincidence that this year's competition was accompanied by initiatives in the last week from both the Garda Siochana and the Jesuit Order in Belvedere College aimed at eradicating the rising tide of public disorder associated with the Leinster Schools' Senior Cup in particular.

At the behest of Assistant Garda Commissioner James McHugh, the Leinster schools' rugby-playing fraternity were invited to a seminar held last Tuesday at the RDS, and which was also attended by the Licensed Vintners' Association. Ostensibly, the seminar was intended to "establish a partnership, including the schools in particular", the assistant commissioner said.

"We wanted to create a greater awareness amongst the schools, in terms of behaviour at matches, and it was a very positive, well attended meeting," said McHugh, who was at pains to stress that his initiative should not be interpreted as a reflection "on one particular sport or group of schools".

He has not, as yet, contacted the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) or the GAA, although he says that the Garda community relations section will be doing so.

Meanwhile, in a recent letter to parents and pupils, Belvedere College cited "the tragedies of last summer" before going on to outline concerns over worsening patterns of behaviour at schools' rugby matches. The school also requested assistance from both parents and past pupils to establish an improved "model of behaviour".

The two deaths that occurred last summer - though unproven to have had a direct link to ex-pupils of rugby-playing schools - did send shockwaves through that community.

However, the Garda match-day initiative should not be interpreted as a direct response to those tragic incidents; it owes more, perhaps, to the significant increase of public disorder offences accompanying Leinster Schools' Cup matches, at Donnybrook in particular.

There have been warning shots, such as the fusillade of objects from opposite platforms of Sandymount Avenue DART station which accompanied the meeting of rival factions from Presentation Bray and St Paul's several years ago.

However, Garda sources in Donnybrook say that public disorder offences on schools' match-days have increased sharply in the last two or three years. This has necessitated a Garda presence at all schools' games at the venue.

In general, the less troublesome games are on Sundays, because more parents are in attendance. The worsening behaviour at other games can be directly attributed to bouts of under-age drinking.

Significantly, the Belvedere letter cites the behaviour of pupils from Thomond Park in Limerick as a role model to emulate, for the public disorder and general excessiveness of schools' rugby is not nearly so discernible outside Leinster.

In the last two or three years there has been an increase in both media coverage of the Leinster Schools' Senior Cup and the intensity with which some schools approach it.

For example, it is widely believed that until a year or so ago some senior squads in Leinster sanctioned the taking of the controversial food supplement creatine. Last Wednesday, a report from a French medical agency suggested a possible link between creatine and cancer.

This may indicative of an almost obsessive devotion to schools' rugby, akin to American highschool or college football. Some schools adopt risible, slightly bizarre, rituals, whereby the selected team are applauded through a break in all classes by the entire school on the morning of matches.

One school is believed to have nothing but group photographs of winning teams adorning its main showcase wall. Lately, Blackrock's side have taken to conducting a joint rendition of the school anthem 'Rock Boys Are We with their supporters as part of an emotional pre-match build-up at Lansdowne Road.

Admittedly, the cheerleading and bunting all lends to the unique atmosphere of the cup, and the schools' game, pockmarked by some wonderful matches, continues to offer enduring entertainment. Alas, amid a hint of superiority complexes, there has also been an increase in on-pitch aggression and baiting of beaten opponents.

Some senior school squads, not content with training five times a week - and even two or three times a day - in the build-up to cup ties, have begun training during the summer (though it should be noted that Terenure College, for one, decided to limit training to twice a week last season). Is it any wonder then that one player who had the double distinction of playing for Ireland Schools and winning a Leinster Senior Cup, when asked which club he was going to join, responded: "Are you joking? I'm going to give it up for a year."

For the non-traditional rugby-playing schools, getting mixed up with the self-perpetuating elite must be more demoralising. Apart from one St Mary's win in 1994, the same three schools (Blackrock College, Clongowes Wood and Terenure College) have monopolised the senior cup since De La Salle Churchtown's win in 1985, and you have to go back to 1976 to find a different cup-winner, CBC Monkstown.

It's no surprise then that the drop-out rate from the game after leaving school is alarming - estimated to be at least 70 per cent. Aside from their sheer intensity, part of the problem may be the knock-out structure of the schools' cups. The advent of more league competitions has helped, but for the most part the focus is on the one-off of cup day. The Leinster Schools' Senior Cup only started on Sunday, but by tea-time today eight teams will already be out of contention.

Revealingly, no such focus on the schools' game exists anywhere else in world rugby. Admittedly, this has contributed to some outstanding results by Irish Schools sides at home and abroad. However, other noted sports academies - from Australian rugby's academy to Ajax Football Club in Amsterdam - pay far more heed to individual player development than to results.

There's little doubt that for much of the 20th century the schools' game was the lifeblood of rugby. The bulk, and sometimes all, of any given Irish XV on international match duty were - and usually still are - drawn from former schools' players. Therein lay the rub, however: for the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) singularly failed to broaden the playing base beyond this cosy little world.

In mitigation of the union, in recent years it has sought to take the game into hitherto unchartered school territory through regional development officers, while more and more professional players are being drawn from non-traditional strongholds such as junior and senior clubs, and youth and underage rugby. Munster has been the most telling case in point, while in Connacht there has been an increase in the number of schools adopting the game and competing in that province's senior schools' cup.

This process is hindered by the survival of sporting bigotry in Ireland: many schools simply won't allow or encourage alternative sports such as rugby on their hallowed turf.

Alas and alack, betraying a hint of envy, for the anti-rugby lobby the excesses of the Leinster Schools' Senior Cup merely provide grist to the mill.