Whatever reservations there are about deciding the first division of the AIB League by a play-off series, Shannon and Garryowen provided a worthy finale to the premier domestic competition at Lansdowne Road last Saturday.
It was a tremendous contest with the issue in doubt to the last minute. What we saw was a match played with all the intensity and full-hearted commitment that one expected. Nor in many respects was it short on skill. I, for one, did not go to Lansdowne Road expecting to see Barbarian rugby.
Shannon's victory was thoroughly deserved and to win the national title for a fourth successive occasion is a truly remarkable achievement. Galwegians, Portadown and Carlow all deserve commendation for winning the other divisions, but apart from Portadown's win in the third division and Ballynahinch's second place in the third division, the league yet again underlined the problems on the Ulster club scene.
In the past some clubs performed historic feats within their own provinces. But in putting Shannon's four league titles in a row into historical perspective, I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that Shannon have eclipsed them all.
One thinks of Garryowen's domination of the Munster Senior Cup many years ago when they were unbeaten in the competition for eight years; Cork Constitution's nine Munster Senior League titles between 1964 and 1972; Lansdowne's great teams of the late 1920s and early 1930s which saw them win the Leinster Senior Cup five times in a row and three Bateman Cup wins in succession; Old Belvedere's achievement in winning the Leinster Cup seven times in succession between 1940 and 1946.
In Ulster, NIFC did the cup and league double seven years in succession. In Connacht, UCG won the Senior Cup five times in succession in the 1910s and Corinthians captured the league crown six times in succession between 1978 and 1983.
All those were great records and feats but they were all performed within their own provinces, other than the Bateman Cup wins by Lansdowne and that was a four-club knockout competition. What separates Shannon is that their four consecutive league wins have been achieved at national level. Some of the clubs who marked up those achievements in the past have fallen on lean times. While Garryowen, Cork Constitution and Lansdowne are still at the top table there has been a sad decline in fortune for the others.
NIFC are in the third division of the AIB League, Old Belvedere's tenure in the first division has ended with relegation, UCG are no longer participating in the league. Corinthians are in the third division and have never participated in the first division.
Now with most issues resolved in the league, it is pertinent to reflect on the outcome of the competition and to go back in some respects on the league through the years and see how fortunes have changed for clubs.
When the league started in 1990-'91, the first division comprised nine clubs. Only four have been ever present in the top division - Garryowen, Shannon, Cork Constitution and St Mary's College. In 1990-91, the other clubs in the first division were Lansdowne, Ballymena, Instonians, Wanderers and Malone. Wanderers and Instonians are now in the third division, with Malone engaged in a play-off to retain their second-division status.
In that inaugural season the league comprised only two divisions. Indeed, that was the way it stood for the first three years, until the third and fourth divisions started. The original second division was made up of Old Wesley, Young Munster, Bangor, Terenure College, Greystones, Sunday's Well, CIYMS, NIFC, Athlone and Corinthians.
Young Munster and Terenure College, alone of those 10 clubs, are currently in the first division. Old Wesley, Greystones and Sunday's Well all won promotion to it subsequently before being relegated. Bangor are now in the fourth division, as are CIYMS, Corinthians are in the third and Athlone amalgamated with Ballinasloe and next season that amalgam, Buccaneers, will be in the first division for the first time.
In the initial stages of the league, promotion to the second division was decreed on the basis of play-offs between the four provincial league champions. That system operated until the third and fourth divisions were added.
Old Belvedere, Blackrock College, Dolphin, Old Crescent and Dungannon were not original members of the league and graduated through the provincial leagues. All eventually made it to the first division but four of that five - Old Belvedere, Old Crescent, Dolphin and Dungannon - have been relegated this season. Clontarf, in contrast, played in the first division for the initial time this season and finished seventh.
The league is about reward for performance and consequently about merit. No longer, as for so long in the past, has any club an automatic right to a place at the top table - it has to be earned. That is as it should be although the argument that the first division should be reduced still further from 12 clubs, as will obtain next season, to a maximum of 10, is compelling.
The competitive instincts of the Munster clubs have been a notable feature with eight wins by Munster clubs in the eight years of the league's existence. The balance, however, has certainly shifted appreciably in other respects since the competition was started. On the positive side, Connacht will, for the first time, be represented in the first division, not by just one club but two, Galwegians and Buccaneers. There could be and that Next season Ulster, who dominated the provincial series not so long ago, has just one representative in the first division, Ballymena. That is a cause for real concern, for Irish rugby needs the game in Ulster to be strong.
Not alone has the province got just one representative in the top division, only three Ulster clubs will definitely be in the second, Derry, Dungannon, Portadown. They could also have either Malone or Ballynahich who are due to play off for a second-division berth, a match subject of course to the outcome of Wanderers' challenge to the IRFU decision to award their match against Buccaneers to Buccaneers. Some real soul-searching is required in Ulster and an urgent case has been presented for some remedial action. The answer will not be found in a negative approach or condemnation of the league as a competition. There is anxiety and it is well founded about the state of Ulster club rugby. Some club amalgamations could help to strengthen the Ulster challenge.
