Dublin University Football Club (DUFC) announced on Friday a new format for the annual Colours games against University College Dublin (UCD). Entitled “Festival of Colours”, this year’s event aims for a new level of inclusivity in Colours games, and encompasses under the one extravagant headline the men’s and women’s events, as well as a match between a selection from the clubs’ J3s and J4s and a tag rugby blitz. With women’s Colours entering its fourth year as an official annual event, the reconceptualisation of Colours makes sense, and is undoubtedly a good thing, placing on an even footing the men’s and women’s games. Colours will take place between April 3rd and 5th.
It’s clear that thought has gone into the event’s reformulation, and this year’s Colours seems imbued with more than a hint of the celebratory. Not for nothing has it been rebranded a festival – this is encapsulated most clearly in the tag rugby blitz that is set to descend on College’s hockey pitch on Wednesday afternoon. Those enjoying a quiet pint in the Pav between the hours of 3.30pm and 6pm will be treated to a mixed event featuring four teams each from Trinity and UCD, adding a touch of fun to proceedings. The event is being organised by Trinity Sport.
The tag rugby blitz will be preceded on by the J3s and J4s game, another more social event. It’s the second year of the fixture, and will be held in UCD on Tuesday evening.
Appetites suitably whetted, all eyes will turn to what are inarguably the main events of Colours, and, despite the good-naturedness of this year’s theme, there will likely be little friendliness during the games between the colleges’ men’s and women’s teams.
DUFC Women will be hoping to utilise home advantage in Wednesday evening’s fixture. It’s been an up-and-down season for a group whose form has improved dramatically after a number of heavy early-season defeats. After staving off relegation from Division 3 of the Leinster League with a final-day thrashing of Wexford Wanderers, they booked a place in the quarter-finals of the Paul Cusack Cup with a controversial win over North Midland Falcons last week. Wednesday’s game, technically a friendly, will certainly serve as a litmus test for how far this team has progressed over the year.
It will not, however, be easy, against a UCD side surely still smarting from defeat at the hands of University College Cork (UCC) in the final of the SSI Division 1 shield. Speaking to The University Times over email, DUFC public relations officer Sarah Clarke said Colours is “a highlight of our year”. Last year’s encounter, which ended in a 22-10 victory for UCD, was the first non-international women’s game to be played in the UCD Bowl, showing the fixture’s growing prestige.
However, there remain issues to be ironed out in relation to the standing of the women’s game in comparison to the men’s encounter. Last year, the women who competed in Colours did not receive the blazers, hats and scarves bestowed upon their male counterparts. Defending the decision, DUFC Director of Rugby Tony Smeeth insisted to The University Times in February that “the problem I had was some girl you just got to fill up the bench who has probably never played before, she gets a blazer? And I have got like six teams worth of players who would die for that blazer who have been playing all their lives”. It remains to be seen how the club will deal with the allocation of blazers but the omens are promising. How far the equal footing of this year’s men’s and women’s games will extend remains to be seen.
The fixture does, however, have perhaps the most practical significance for DUFC’s men’s team, as an Ulster Bank Division 1A encounter. The bragging rights will certainly be a motivation, but the points on offer are perhaps more important still. With two games remaining, UCD and Trinity are both most likely safe, sitting seventh and eighth respectively, but a defeat for DUFC could leave Smeeth’s players looking nervously over their shoulders at ninth-placed St Mary’s, who currently face the prospect of a promotion/relegation playoff. For DUFC, a win will mathematically ensure survival, all the incentive needed to deliver a big performance on Thursday evening. UCD, winners last year in a game that took place on the same day as Trinity Ball, will be seeking a second consecutive victory.
With an increased emphasis on equality, this year’s Festival of Colours looks set to be fascinating, for the freshness of its approach and, more importantly, for the entertaining rugby it will provide.
