Now that the dust has settled on another Irish Senior [Bob Kerr] Cup campaign, it is perhaps time to reflect on the performance of Leinster teams overall.
In R1 there were nine head-to-head encounters between Ulster and Leinster sides, with Leinster winning seven. With Clontarf beating Cork Harlequins that meant that there were eight Leinster teams through to R2.
On the 9th June there were only two matches involving teams from the two provinces, with the result going one a piece. A re-fixed match on the 24th saw The Hills defeat CIYMS. In the Quarter Finals the Ulster teams had the best of it two to one with Merrion added to the SF list with a win against Clontarf. Both semi-finals went Leinster’s way and we had a SL v NL final.
In total the head-to-heads went 12/5 in Leinster’s favour.
Looking back over the last ten years [including 2012] Leinster teams have generally performed well. The following table, compiled by tournament director Gerry Byrne, gives 1 point for a defeated QF, two for a defeated SF, three for a finalist and four for the eventual winner. Based on this the breakdown across the different unions [and dividing Leinster between north and south] is as follows -
<!--StartFragment--> <!--EndFragment-->| Year | NL | NCU | NW | SL |
| 2003 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 6 |
| 2004 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 2 |
| 2005 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| 2006 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 2007 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 2008 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
| 2009 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 7 |
| 2010 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 7 |
| 2011 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 4 |
| 2012 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Total 51 18 36 45 |
Next week we will provide information on the most successful clubs over the past ten years.