No doubt there will be a lot to learn from the various provincial senior cups in the New Year. That is just as well. How the selectors are expected to choose the best schoolboy players on the basis of such a flimsy trial is mind-boggling.

At least the selections were vindicated in that the Whites (probables) showed utter supremacy at Blackrock College on Saturday. Belvedere College flanker Andrew Cullen pinched a hat trick of tries after being transferred from the Greens, for whom he also managed a try.

Leinster's domination of the inter-provincial series was reflected in the choice of seven of their players for the Whites. A plethora of substitutions fudged the overall pattern of the game, but Kieran Lewis caught the eye with a hat-trick of tries.