The Irish Schoolboys rugby union team is the national team for secondary school students and under-18 school players in Ireland. There is an equivalent Ireland under 18 clubs side that play international rugby.
Role The Irish Schoolboys side represents the nation against youths of other nations.
They provide a starting point for Ireland qualified players that has led to players representing the National Team, Ireland A, Development, Provincial, Students, Irish U-20 and AIL teams.
Currently in both the Republic and Northern Ireland there are 246 Schools playing rugby; Ulster (107), Leinster (75), Munster (41) and Connacht (23).
School competitions Each of the four Provinces holds a Schools Cup competition every season, usually culminating in a Provincial Cup Final held on or around St Patricks Day (17 March each year). Despite the age group the qualifying games and finals are usually very well attended with crowds often better than those attending most adult club games, for Leinster Schools Cup Finals crowds of 15–20,000 are not unusual. This has brought onboard sponsors of the various competitions such as the Northern Bank Schools' Cup (Ulster), Supermacs Schools Cup (Connacht) and the Powerade Schools' Cup (Leinster).
Opposition They also play against other 6 Nations countries' schoolboys sides during the year, and also other test playing nations schools teams on a more infrequent basis.
Recent matches include a narrow loss to France in a schoolboy Under-18 match on 20 December 2007.
Since 2011, the team has taken part in the annual European Under-18 Rugby Union Championship, winning the title in this competition in 2011. It was Ireland's fourth appearance in the final, having previously lost to France in 2007, 2008 and 2010. 2011 marked the first time that Ireland was represented by a schools team rather than a Clubs XV.European Glory For Ireland Schools Team IRU website, published: 23 April 2011. Retrieved 23 April 2011
Notable former Schoolboy representatives The following players have been called up by the Ireland senior national team.
Andrew Trimble David Humphreys Tommy Bowe Paddy Wallace Jacob Stockdale Rory Best Simon Best Fionn Carr Paddy Jackson Stuart Olding Darren Cave Paul Marshall Nathan Doak Neil McMillan Michael Lowry James Hume Jeremy Davidson Iain Henderson
Gordon D'Arcy Luke Fitzgerald Cian Healy Jamie Heaslip Shane Jennings Rob Kearney Brian O'Driscoll Johnny Sexton Gavin Duffy Andrew Dunne Oli Jager
Honours European Under-18 Rugby Union Championship Champions: 2011 Runners-up: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014
European championship
Positions The team's final positions in the European championship: Year Division Tier Place 2004 A Division I 2005 A Division I 5th 2006 A Division I 2nd – Runners-up 2007 A Division I 2nd – Runners-up 2008 A Division I 2nd – Runners-up 2009 A Division I 3rd 2010 A Division I 2nd – Runners-up 2011 Elite Division I 1st – Champions 2012 Elite Division I 2nd – Runners-up 2013 Elite Division I 3rd 2014 Elite Division I 2nd – Runners-up 2015 Elite Division I 7th
References
External links Irish Colleges Rugby Union Under 18 Six Nations Festival IRB Junior World Championship FIRA AER U18 Euro Championship