The Blues Cup is an eight-year competition that is the annual highlight of the Cardiff Blues region's Junior Clubs calendar.
In 2016, over 80 teams, 200 coaches, and 1,500 players between the ages of 12 and 14 were involved in two tiers of competition in over 82 group games, 24 quarter finals, 12 semi-finals and today 6 finals.
The 2017 competition is set to include 33 Junior Clubs and 43 Youth Clubs translating to 147 teams with an estimated 2220 – 2960 players and 296 – 444 coaches taking part in over five age group categories.
Last year’s introduction of a second tier plate competition following the group stages has been a resounding success and has not only provided players with more than one opportunity to take part in the Blues Cup but has also resulted in us welcoming clubs to Cardiff Arms Parks finals day for the first time.
The Blues Cup is the biggest Junior Club Competition in Wales and the competition fosters the promotion of rugby participation within our Region and ‘showcases’ the vibrancy of the junior club game.
The competition also aims to inspire a future generation of players and a large number will hopefully one day run out again on the hallowed pitch at the BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park in a Blues Jersey.
The team behind running such a big and successful competition is vast from the Blues Cup Organising Committee, Rhys Williams and Mike Brown of the Cardiff Blues, WRU Rugby Apprentices, WRU placement students and School club/Hub Officers, volunteer referees WRU regional coordinators and of course the players and parents themselves.
The draw for this year’s competition will be released at the regional seasonal launch at Hensol castle on September the 11th and will appear on the Blues website as well as being sent to clubs.
The format of this year’s competition will remain the same as last year with teams playing 2/3 games in a group system with the winner progressing to the quarter final of the cup and the runner up progressing to the quarter final of the plate.
For the first time ever an U15 competition has also been introduced and 20 teams will compete over 3 days to decide the regional U15s Blues cup champion.
We also have two U19 Blues Cup competitions being run in the region this year, one in the North of the region and one in the South.
Below are the key dates for all competitions in the region this season.
Any further information can be obtained from emailing [email protected] and following @Bluescup on twitter.
U12s – U14s Cup and Plate competition timelines:
Round 1 - 22nd Oct
Round 2 - 17th Dec
Quarter final - 18th March
Semi final days @Wern 22nd and 29th April
Final - 13th/20th May TBC
U15s Cup competition:
Sky Conference Sunday Feb 11th
Navy Conference Sunday Feb 18th
Finals Day Sunday March 4th
U19s North and South Cup and Plate competition:
1st Round – 2nd/9th September
2nd Round/1st Round plate south – Play by 20th January
3rd Round Cup/1st Round Plate North – 10th February
Quarter Final Cup/Plate – 10th March
Semi Final/Cup Plate – 11th April
Final Cup/Plate – 5th May
Regional Final – 12th May