While exams and job prospects vie for priority throughout the academic year, rugby will enjoy parity atop the to-do list for about two dozen NUIG bookworms this March.

National University of Ireland (Galway) plays host to tertiary-level sports teams from around the country contesting the annual “intervarsities”competition. NUIG's rugby women wish to kick on from 2010’s performance, runner-up to and co-finalist with University of Limerick. Last year, NUIG met UCC in the knock-out stages, succumbing 12-10 in the semi-final.

Public Relations Officer and tournament veteran Carol Staunton said both 2010 and 2011 were “happy” tournaments for NUIG but given the narrow scoreline margins games could have easily swung in their favour for even happier results. Miss Staunton said the 2012 squad was under no illusion as to their own expectations, and they had set them on the number one spot.

“There’s really nothing stopping us kicking on, we tend to surprise ourselves at these tournaments. The intervarsities is a great leveller as everyone's in sort of the same boat. Everyone in our camp’s pretty focused on making this year a pleasant surprise, and celebrating accordingly of course,” Miss Staunton said.

While invitations sought entries from all 14 of Ireland’s CUSAI-registered tertiary institutions, exact numbers would be unknown until the February registration deadline. The March 28,29 tournament was run in a round-robin arrangement and included a final making it a true championship. There was a divisional distinction however, but NUIG contested the foremost competition along with the country’s rugby heavyweights.

Miss Staunton added that domestic and international student ranks this year had bolstered the rugby acumen at NUIG, and she had high hopes for this year’s hosts.

caption: Carol Staunton (media liaison), Hannah Smith (chairwoman), and team skipper Louise Kelly eagerly await the March Intervarsities Womens Rugby tournament in late March. NUIG will contest the premier division, and hopes to advance beyond last year's semi-final knockout stage.

A hardy band of An Cheathra Rua pupils undertake as arduous a rugby journey on Sunday as any...Cian Healy, Ronan O'Gara and Connacht's Brett Wilkinson included.

About 30 Scoil Chuimsitheach Chiaráin pupils, with teachers Loyola Geraghty and Neasa Mhic Dhonncha, will leave the Connemara Ghaeltacht before dawn, travel by Peadar Óg Ó Cualáin coach to Dublin, meet Greystones for an Under16 clash, piece themselves back together, hit the Aviva by 3pm, out-sing (and out-cheer) the Welsh, and get back home by midnight for school on Monday morning.

And they cannot wait.

Carraroe-based An Ghaeltacht rugby master Cian deBuitlear will meet them in Dublin for both fixtures. The venture is the first such undertaking by An Ghaeltacht rugby, he said, a relative rookie club by Connacht standards. DeBuitlear hopes to make it an annual experience, and given the local and player support which weighed in behind the coming weekend's cross-country sojourn, he has high hopes for the years to come.

Of the 30 or so youngsters involved, only a handful have seen Ireland play live, even fewer have seen The Aviva firsthand.

SCC contested the development league and development cup competitions, took part in interschool challenges, and more than a dozen are involved in a talent-heavy Corinthians-An Ghaeltact combined Under15 team vying with Castlebar for a league final berth. The composite Corinthians-An Ghaeltacht team has drawn the winners of Ballyhaunis and Carrick-on-Shannon's preliminary Under15 cup tie. Sligo and Galwegians met in the other premier Under15 league semi, Sligo taking honours in that fixture 18-7.

While GAA football remains the first choicemsporting pursuit in the Ghaeltacht, SCC has made a name for itself in recent months tipping up a good few high-profile rugby colleges. DeBuitlear, Geraghty and Mhic Donncha hope this year's success has laid a platform for a promising rugby nursery in the wild wesht.

If Ireland hoist hands after 80minutes on Sunday, it will be another fond rugby memory for An Ghaeltacht's youngest rugby pioneers.

Three schools in Connacht's rugby catchment have a rare opportunity to assert cup rugby supremacy next week.

Westport's Rice College, Sligo Grammar and Marist Athlone have each staked claims boasting semi-final berths in junior and senior cup competitions. The rugby triumvirate will contest Supermac's Connacht Schools Junior and Senior cup semi-finals next week.

Historic Galway heavyweight St Joseph's (The Bish') meet Rice College in Westport in one junior semi-final, Marist Athlone - by virtue of a development cup victory and wildcard entry to the premier competition - play away in Sligo against Grammar in the other. Ballinasloe's St Joseph's Garbally is the fourth senior semi-finalist, also in Sligo, against a rampant Grammar. Rice College hosts Marist.

Junior cup rugby, its match results more prone to individual flair and broken play breakouts than the more-structured senior competition, is nigh on impossible to pick.

Rice at home pose a formidable challenge, the 90 minutes travel from Galway to Westport not ideal for match preparation. Grammar, having already won the league championship in December, probably have the bookies' backing, especially given Marist's cup entry came by way of the development cup. Battle experience against premier opposition may hurt Athlone in the dying stages.

Grammar and Garbally, in one senior decider, have history to burn on both sides. While Garbally perhaps boasts a kilo-advantage up front, the Sligo youngsters have the most recent finals rugby experience losing a nailbiter to Marist in the senior league final in December. Rice and league champions Marist Athlone are both viable contenders to add to their trophy cabinets. The Athlone backs, at full strength, should prove too slick and too slippery for their Mayo hosts but on a heavy track the Rice forwards may yet deny Athlone's finest from seeing too much possession. Conditions may dictate which way the axe falls next week, but on paper Athlone has the inside running for one final berth.

Times and dates have not yet been finalised due to examination timetables. Matches are by own arrangement between affected colleges. Updates will appear on Connacht Rugby's domestic site throughout the cup competition.

Marist Athlone scored a double-blow against the travelling CBS Roscommon juniors on Friday afternoon, claiming their junior cup quarter-final and the Supermac's Connacht Schools Junior Development Cup title to boot.

Marist, having already busied the Athlone trophy cabinet with silverware this winter courtesy of their senior league win, turned out in full force to support the youngsters in their 17-5 double-fixture victory against little-known rugby rookies CBS Roscommon. Drawn against each other in the junior cup quarter-final, both development cup finalists acquitted themselves well in mucky conditions.

Played on Dubarry Park's number two, the fixture doubled as the Supermac's Connacht Schools Junior Development Cup final, and the first round of the Open Cup. Both development cup finalists were drawn against each other in the open cup's quarterfinal first round.

Marist experience won out in the end cutting short what has been a remarkable ride on the Roscommon rollercoaster. The Supermac's Connacht Schools junior and senior cups continue for Marist Athlone, both senior and junior contingents through to semi-final encounters next week.

Shrieks, screams and shivers sound more like a horror flick soundtrack than midweek footy festival, but Tuesday's Galway County interschool girls blitz tended more toward the terrific than horrific, a blast for players and spectators alike.

Temperatures conspired against too frenetic a pace for Tuesday's tournament but enthusiasm and enjoyment hardly suffered. Thirteen junior and senior teams from five different schools descended on the Liam Mellows' turf in Ballyloughan, Renmore, for two hours of seven-a-side touch rugby. 

Connemara's Clifden Community School landed with four teams, three Colaiste na Coiribe complements, and two apiece from Galway City's Presentation College, Ballygar, and Seamount (Kinvarra). 

Player experience ranged from green-tinged rookie to intermediate level at 11am kickoff time, but had improved across the board by the time 1pm drew near. 

Women's Branch co-ordinator Wendy Hickey was delighted with the giant strides the Presentation girls made, and heaped similar praise on Colaiste na Coiribe for heightened skill levels within only a couple of hours.

In between squeals of delight and good-natured protests, several among the girls volunteered positive feedback for the mid-morning pow-wow, and were duly appreciative of the efforts made by school rugby co-ordinators, Branch referees and Ms Hickey who oversaw the fixture.

Each team completed a minimum of four games throughout the two hours, scorelines seldom straying more than three scores apart. The Girls blitz campaign continues this week in Castlebar, and draws schools from Westport and Sligo.

The girls under16 and 18 clubs tri-series involving Westport, Ballina and the composite Dunmore-Connemara teams continues this weekend in Ballina, last weekend's Dunmore fixture was rained out. Connemara hosts the final round of regular play next weekend (February 11,12) before the champions playoff later in the month.

With the emergence of Marist Athlone and Sligo Grammar as Supermac's Connacht Schools senior and junior league champions late last year, both have valid claims on their respective cup trophies.

Longtime open and underage Irish sports supporter Supermac's is on board again this year as schools and youth cup rugby primary sponsor. Supermac's managing director Pat McDonagh was on-site at the company's Tuam Road outlet on Friday, one of four formal schools cup launches about the Connacht rugby catchment.

"Rugby success depends on grassroots support at underage level which is why Supermac's sees its support of schools rugby as so important. And such a pleasure.

"The rugby profile in the region is riding high at the moment on account of heightened Heineken Cup interest," he said. "We're only too thrilled to be part of that wave."

Franchisees held cup competition launches in Sligo, Castlebar, Athlone's Monksland and Galway city's Tuam Road outlets. The launches followed Monday night's youths level club cup competition draws unveiled after the January Youths Meeting upstairs in Supermac's, Galway City Shopping Centre, Headford Road.

Senior league runners-up Sligo Grammar opened its cup campaign with an 11-3 victory at home over 2010 champions Colaiste Iognaid (The Jes'), whereas Westport's Rice College similarly advanced beyond the quarterfinal stage beating Development Cup runners-up Clifden Community College.

Senior league guns Marist Athlone edged out Calasanctius in Oranmore, and Garbally advance at Development Cup winner St Joseph's (The Bish') expense.

Both senior and junior cup semi-finals play out through next week following Ireland's Six Nations opener v Wales.

St Gerald's, Sligo's Summerhill, St Joseph's (The Bish'), St Joseph's Garbally, Marist Athlone, Clifden, Rice College, Calasanctius, the Jes', rugby rookies CBS Roscommon and Sligo Grammar all feature in this year's competition; SGS, Rice College, Marist, Calasanctius and The Bish contest both junior and senior titles.

Supermac's Connacht Schools junior and senior finals play-out as a double-bill on the Connacht Sportsground, scheduled for March 14.

pics: (from top)

Super Mac and the lunchboxers: Supermac's boss Pat McDonagh joined Oranmore's (Calasanctius) and The Jes' rugby youngsters for lunch on Friday, one of four cup rugby launches about the province's Supermac's franchises.

Power-loading: The Jes' Paul Power (right-hand corner) hoes into Supermacs/Papa John's finest, one of about a dozen Galway-based school pupils involved in the Supermac's Connacht Schools cup and league competitions this winter.

Northern Front: Battle raged in the first senior cup quarterfinal between Sligo Grammar and cup-holders Colaiste Iognaid. SGS advanced by way of a hardfought 11-3 win at home.

Castlebar Cohort: Paul Jennings (in green) joined Supermacs staff and Castlebar students for the Connacht Schools Cup launch, one of four around the Connacht catchment recently.