With the business end of the season upon, the heavyweight teams on the island come to the fore.
The Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup final will be between the 2nd and 3rd teams on our list, as Merrion and Waringstown meet in early September. The only team above them, the new leaders Clontarf, were narrowly beaten by Waringstown in the Irish Senior Cup, emphasizing that competition's status as the premier one in the land.
Clontarf's re-emergence at the top comes as they have re-taken the lead in Leinster Division 1, at the same time as the Premier league in the NCU has had a bit of a shake up. The seeminly unbeatable Waringstown have lost in the league (to CSN) and the Ulster Cup (to North Down) and previous table toppers Instonians have also fallen away, losing to CIYMS last weekend.
Further down. North Down have gad a good August, finding themselves on top of the NCU's Premier division, and up to 6th, whilst Pembroke's recovery in Leinster sees them back up to 10th.
Most of the North West's top sides have dropped, with Coleraine remaining the best at 9th - Strabane have had some great victories recently, and move up to 15th (4th in the NW).
The other big movers since our last round up are all from Leinster. Railway Union have slipped into the relegation spots in Division 1, and drop out of the top 20. They have not finished outside of the top 20 since 2005. Leinster have had a down and up season, but three straight league wins moves them up seven places to 19th.
Rush reached the National Cup final for the first time (to go along with their two Irish Senior Cup finals) and they have moved up 32. They will be underdogs in the final though, playing 27th placed Drummond.
Drummond's excellent season (they are second in the Championship), means they have moved up more places than any other player this year, moving up 11 places from 38 to 27. The NCU's Lurgan are at the other end of the scale. They find themselves mid table in Section 1, and have slumped from 24 to 34.