The McCambley Cup is a cup competition for men’s club teams who compete within the five Regional leagues across Ulster. This year, 31 teams have entered the competition making it the largest club competition within the Province. It provides a great chance for teams that normally would not play against each other in league matches to go head to head. The McCambley Cup is presented in memory of prominent ex-Instonian, Herbert McCambley.
This exciting competition is knock-out from the get go with the successful winners going through to the last 16 in the new year. For the teams that get knocked out on Saturday, they then go into the round of 16 of the Butler Shield which gets underway in January.
Last year’s winners, Ballynahinch 5XV, who beat Ballyclare 4XV in the final, are back this year and will be travelling to Omagh on Saturday, hoping to kick start their defence.
This year sees the inclusion of some new teams into the competition, one of which being Carrickfergus RFC 4XV. They are currently second in their league, having won 5 out of 6 games this season.
Speaking to Glen McCord, a committee member from Carrickfergus about how they were able to form a new team this season he stated, ‘We recognised that we had a high number of U18s in their final year of youth rugby indicating their intent to continue to play rugby for the club. It was decided to introduce a 4th XV for the 23/24 season in order to be able to accommodate all players.’
We will be following Carrick 4XV on their journey to see how they get on in the cup this season. Their first game is against Lisburn 3XV.
The Forster Cup is also getting underway this weekend, which takes place amongst the three provincial regional leagues. 23 teams have entered the competition this season. There are 7 first round ties and 9 teams who have received a bye to the next round. Teams who get knocked out in the first round will be entered into the Forster Plate.
Good luck to all teams as they start their various cup campaigns this weekend!