This year’s quintet of matches are being hosted by the newly-rebranded TU Dublin, with the City Campus in Grangegorman set to be the hotspot with four of the five being contested on the campus. The fifth and final game of the series, the CFAI RUSTLERS Perpetual Cup will be played in Home Farm, Whitehall on Wednesday afternoon.
TU Dublin Blanchardstown Campus have their sights set on winning their first-ever CFAI Perpetual Cup, having never achieved the highest honour under any of their previous monikers. Blanchardstown will be hoping that this will be the first step in a famous double as they also have a CUFL Division One Final to look forward to later this month. Facing them will be the six-time champions, Waterford IT, who will be hoping to mark their seventh success exactly twenty years on from their last victory.
Preceding them on the Wednesday afternoon will be the Plate clash between IT Carlow and the National College of Ireland. In recent memory, IT Carlow have made more appearances in the Perpetual Cup Final including a famous six-in-a-row between 2012 and 2017. However, a first-round exit to Letterkenny IT has resulted in them forging a cup run in the Plate where they face the NCI. The city-centre based college were victorious in last year’s Challenge Cup Final and face their sternest test so far in the competition having only faced Division Two opposition thus far including IT Carlow ‘C’ in the semi-final.
In today’s action, the Challenge Cup Final will be the centrepiece of the action this afternoon as Dublin Business School face GTI Galway. DBS have been cup specialists in recent years having won back-to-back Eustace Cups in the previous two seasons. Between the two finalists, they have captured the last three Eustace Cups with GTI Galway claiming the trophy named after long-standing CFAI Chairman and President Robert Eustace (RIP).
This year’s Eustace Cup competition will be contested by Waterford IT ‘C’ and Carlow Institute of FET. Both sides have contested two of the last three finals with Waterford IT falling to GTI Galway in 2016 and Carlow being undone by DBS in 2017.
The Eustace Shield final will close out the first day of action in this year’s finals as Drogheda Institute of FE take on Limerick IT ‘C’. Drogheda could only book their place in the final yesterday as they defeated IT Carlow ‘D’ in a rearranged game after the first game between the sides was abandoned due to serious injury. Limerick IT have been in exceptional goalscoring form, netting sixteen goals in their three games in this competition thus far.
Fixtures
All games to be played at TU Dublin Grangegorman Campus unless stated.
Tuesday 5th March
CFAI RUSTLERS Challenge Cup
Dublin Business School v GTI Galway (3pm)
CFAI RUSTLERS Eustace Cup
Waterford IT ‘C’ v Carlow Institute of FET (12pm)
CFAI RUSTLERS Eustace Shield
Limerick IT ‘C’ v Drogheda Institute of FE (6pm)
Wednesday 6th March
CFAI RUSTLERS Perpertual Cup
TU Dublin Blanchardstown v Waterford IT, Whitehall (4pm)
CFAI RUSTLERS Plate
IT Carlow v National College of Ireland (12.30pm)