Kevin Kelleher - IRFU Leinster Schools Branch Honorary Secretary

It's easy to be negative and a lot of people outside the schools rugby set-up have been in recent years.

It is a very tightly knit, well-run competition with several league set-ups. People like Joe Gough, Brian Wall, Brian Gallagher and Larry Halpin, to name but a few, make my job very easy. They run these competitions with a thoroughness you won't find in other sports.

People outside, and especially in the media, last year failed to note all the positive work done by rugby schools affiliated to the Leinster Branch.

Blackrock are always the targets of this sort of thing, but they set the standard of discipline. I remember a time when a student broke an opposing school's flag, but the student was reprimanded immediately.

Fr Godfrey, the Blackrock coach, who was in the committee box, stood up and, despite the noise, made his voice heard clearly. He motioned the boy towards him. You could, suddenly, hear a pin drop. 'See me in my office tomorrow morning,' he told a very sheepish lad.

Blackrock - and all the schools - do not tolerate bad behaviour from those in their charge, believe me. Yes, we all know that control in society is changing, but there is no crisis in behaviour. We constantly address that and advise our affiliates of their responsibilities.

But it must be stressed that the school authorities are well aware of all that and standards of control are, for the most part, very good. The bad publicity was generated by a few who probably were never at a schools rugby match in their lives.