Kilkenny College gets its Leinster Schools Senior Cup campaign underway today.
They’re up against Newbridge College at 3 o clock in Energia Park in Dublin.
After topping its League group, the Kildare school won its quarter and semi-final matches against CBC Monkstown and Cistercian College, Roscrea.
Their inability to beat Gonzaga in the final could serve as a reality check for a team with such talent.
Kilkenny went well in the League before losing to Gonzaga in the semi-finals.
Players to watch out for are captain Stephen Smyth who will transition from the back row to hooker in a pack that’s led by loose-head Toyin Smith and flanker Paddy Bramley.
Trainer Johnny Tobin told the Knock On podcast that they’re in good shape and have changed their approach this year.
“The squad is training very, very well to be fair and building quite nicely and a lot of different stuff done this year in preparation in comparison to last year and maybe we did too much this time last year but we’re in a kind of different mind frame now and lads are moving quite well,” said Johnny.
“Any knocks that we’re carrying are starting to go, that kind of affected us around league final and league semi-final time,”.
“Our juniors are out there the following week against Blackrock on the Wednesday so we have two trips in a week,”.
Check out our weekly rugby podcast called The Knock On covering Carlow, Kilkenny, Tullow and schools and colleges rugby.