Resume the Irish Interprovincial Championship?

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[Jackass]
Seán Cronin
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Joined: April 14th, 2008, 2:40 pm
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Resume the Irish Interprovincial Championship?

Post by [Jackass] »

I don't know why this competition was stopped. In the early years of the Celtic League, the games between Irish sides in the league doubled as the pool games in the interpro championship. Why did it end?

Personally, I'd like to see it reinstated, the home and away fixtures of the Pro12 regular season not just awarding points in the Pro12, but in the Interpro Championship too. It's one of the oldest competitions in Europe / the world, a great tradition, it's an extra piece of silverware and Irish team would get to win each season, as well as bragging rights, add an extra tier to levels of competition (National Champions, Celtic Champions, European Champions) and some extra spice (if needed) to interpro derbies.

Edinburgh and Glasgow play back-to-back games to compete for the 1872 Cup (the year of their first meeting) and it is awarded on aggregate scores of their Pro12 games, so why not have our own trophy going too?

Any European or Play-off fixtures would not account towards the competition.

It would be nice to have a treble (or even quadrupole) on the line each season, and who doesn't like winning silverware?? :D

Annoyingly for Leinster also, as seems to be the case with our luck, we were the dominant province all the way through the inter-pro championship, but in the final 20 years (from the mid 80's up until the competition ended in 2002) we went on a diabolical lul, winning just 4 trophies, with a 10 year gap (longest in our history) and the trophies were won just coming up to the end of competing and when we were coming back as the main province.

Based on the results since the competition ended, I'm pretty sure we would once again be the most title winning province, but for the trophy no longer being awarded. :cry:

But bring it back I say!
Pro12 Champions, Amlin Challenge Cup Champions, British & Irish Cup Champions
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