Four sides will kick off their bid for the
Collingwood Cup when first round ties in the 2020 Irish Universities Blue Riband
trophy, once again sponsored by Rustlers the Irish fast food brand, take place
early in November.
The latter stages of the competition which will be
hosted by Trinity College Dublin are set for Dublin venues from February 3-5
with the final expected to take place in either Dalymount Park or Trinity’s
College Park.
The Irish Universities confirmed details of their
three main cup competitions at a meeting of members in Dublin last weekend with
the first round Collingwood Cup draw plus the full Harding Cup draw been made .
In the Collingwood Cup first round Ulster University
will face Mary Immaculate College Limerick at a Dublin venue while Maynooth
University have home advantage against NUI Galway. These ties are to be played
in the week commencing November 4 next.
The two first round winners will then join the other
six sides which include hosts Trinity College Dublin and the top five ranked
sides from the past five Collingwood Cups - UCC, UCD, University of Limerick,
DCU and Queens University Belfast in the quarter final draw which is expected
to take place in early December.
The Harding Cup which is confined to first year
university students has been moved forward in the season calendar and it will
now be played from November 18-20 with Queens University Belfast making a
welcome return to the competition after an absence of several years as this
season’s hosts.
The
quarter final draw: UCC v NUI Galway; DCU v UCD; Trinity College Dublin v
Queens University Belfast; Maynooth University v University of Limerick.
Semi
Finals: UCC/NUI Galway v DCU/UCD; Trinity College Dublin/Queens University
Belfast v Maynooth University/University of Limerick.
Maynooth University is the venue for the Crowley Cup
and it is set to take place from March 6-8. This popular cup competition and is
restricted to university footballers who did not figure in the 2020 Collingwood
Cup.
Universities chairman Terry McAuley is looking
forward to the new season and is pleased that Rustlers will continue their
link.
“We are delighted that Rustlers are still on board
as our main sponsor and with their support and the assistance of Mark Scanlon
and the staff in the FAI Third Level Football Department we have been able to
heighten the profile of these cup competitions and also live stream both the
Collingwood and Harding finals to a wide audience.
“The coming year is a significant one for the
Collingwood Cup, the oldest surviving all island football competition which was
first played for in 1914, and although we celebrated it’s centenary with UCD
hosting the 2014 competition at Belfield it wasn’t actually played for on each
of those 100 years”, explained McAuley.
“The competition was suspended in 1915 during the
First World War and part of the Irish War of Independence and didn’t resume
until 1920. While a dispute between the Irish Football Association and the FAI
forced the 1932 and 1933 competition to be held over. So 2020 will be the
actual 100th playing of the Collingwood” added McAuley.
