Way, way back in time - when John Major was still a trapeze artist, Charlie Haughey a political artist and Ireland were still winning the odd championship or triple crown - a fellow reporter good-naturedly but seriously, accused me of creating a monster.

Little did we know, the monster in question was but a puppet compared to the colossus that is now the Leinster Schools' Senior Cup media coverage.

Back then, circa the mid-80s or so (yikes!), yours truly jumped if Vincent Browne barked (as he was wont to do) and on one occasion dutifully obeyed my erstwhile boss's desire to supply the readers of The Sunday Tribune with a full page previewing the forthcoming provincial schools' cup campaigns. It demanded exhaustive research for which of course, I was handsomely rewarded (not) and became a weekly regular.

For a broadsheet to do this, and especially a Sunday broadsheet, was unheard of. The monster-accusing colleague reckoned that was the catalyst, which was a terrible thing to do to me.

The temptation now, much like the Lone Ranger shrieking to Silver, is to cry: "Whooooaaa." But as even Tonto knows, it's too late now, the horse has bolted.

Despite Ulster making the final of the European Cup, and the onset of the Five Nations Championship, small forests will be cut down to accommodate the coverage of the Schools' Cups, even the Junior (under-15s) Cups, and especially in Leinster.

This writer, like others, will dutifully attend and wax lyrical about the purity/glorified escapism (dilute to taste) of schools' cup rugby. But the unease remains. In many ways, it is a monster out of control.

It's always been the case that this and other sports desks take irate calls from parents complaining as to why their little Johnny's name was spelt incorrectly, or not mentioned, even if he only came on as a sub for five minutes.

But last week, new ground was broken. We received a call from an SCT coach at a very prominent rugby playing school who bemoaned the style of schools' cup reportage in this newspaper as distinct from others. We were too critical and personalised. Jeez, the thing hasn't even started yet.

Maybe his argument had some merit. If we in the media are placing too much pressure on young players (and the sheer volume of the coverage probably does contribute) what about the schools themselves?

They're the ones who train the kids upwards of five times a week (to the detriment of schooling?) They're the ones who prepare for the Leinster Schools' Senior Cup as if its the biggest competition in the world. They're the ones, in at least one if not two cases, who reportedly prescribe creatine as part of the players' diet. In short, they're the ones applying the pressure as much as anyone else.

Good memories, of course, outnumber the bad memories, and there are some fantastic matches to savour. But the nature of the competition is open to excessive downers, regardless of how the newspapers report the event.

Take the case of the player who missed a last-minute, match-winning conversion in a tie at Donnybrook last season; as a result of which his team were knocked out. What were the newspapers to do, blithely ignore this moment or not mention the player's name?

The Irish Times probably made a mistake in putting the kid's name in the headline, as his father understandably pointed out to this office. But had the player landed the kick, then he would have taken the plaudits and the headlines, and none would have complained. As it was, I would have thought that the sheer ignominy of missing that kick in front of his team-mates, his school and the crowd of 1,500-2,000, in the knowledge that this ended the schools' rugby playing career of himself and many of his team-mates, was more than enough psychological damage in itself.

And therein lies the rub. The very nature of this competition is such that it is result-driven, where fear of making mistakes over-rides risktaking. It's a knock-out event in which the stakes are inordinately higher than if they were a league concept.

(Could Irish teams' penchant for one-off performances be in any way related?)

For all the excitement it generates, there's also a bit of a myth about schools' rugby which needs to be debunked. The development of skills, especially back play, seem very often secondary to the result.

Rare indeed is the year when several quality backs are unearthed together. Usually one stands head and shoulders above the rest either in vintage or non-vintage years, be it Gordon D'Arcy last year or before him, Vinny Cunningham, Brian Glennon or Brendan Mullin in other years. St Mary's are perhaps an honourable exception.

It's interesting to compare the schools' rugby ethos in Ireland with that of France, where players are graded not according to age but to size. Furthermore, and this is something that should be applied in Irish schools' rugby fortwith, kicking from the hand is banned outside the 22.

The Bermuda Triangle of Irish rugby - in the year or two immediately above schools' level - where so many ex-schools' players seem to vanish without trace must in part be attributed to the excesses of the schools' campaigns.

Furthermore, despite their supposed conveyor belts, how come the likes of Blackrock, Terenure and St Mary's have never won an AIL title? And, generally, it is the same elite within an elite which wins the competition year after year. Sporadically, the likes of CBC Monkstown (winners in '76 and finalists in '84) or De La Salle Churchtown (winners in '83 and '84) upset the cosy cartel. But the latter's successes apart, since CBC's solitary success 23 years ago, it's been the same four schools who have won the Leinster Schools' Senior Cup. It's much the same story in the other three provinces as well.

The IRFU can point to statistics which show more kids are playing rugby at schools' level than ever before. Lies, damned lies and statistics. In fact, the composition of the Leinster B and A sections, i.e. weaker and stronger, has not altered that much at all in the last 20 years.

Most pertinently of all, even some within the IRFU will privately admit that the elitist schools' game contributed to the Union abrogating their responsibilities when it came to spreading the Gospel. Arguably, the likes of Barnhall or Clanwilliam, with their extensive under-age rugby network in non-schools' rugby areas, do more, far more, for the long-term betterment of Irish rugby.

When the Leinster Schools' Senior Cup starts producing players from non-traditional bases, then truly they can claim to be doing something for Irish rugby. For the moment, it remains impossible not to enjoy certainly, but something of a closed shop and a sacred cow for all that.