Cover image by Mark Kelly (thewateredge)
The penultimate race of this University Championship regatta is the blue-riband event, the Men’s Senior Eight. A straight final, full to the brim of international and domestic talent from right across the country.
University College Dublin (UCD)
University College Dublin will be brimming with confidence from their well-earned win at Erne Head of the River and the complete demolition of Trinity College Dublin at the Colour’s Boat Races to retain the Gannon Cup. There are no alterations made to this sleek crew, and they will be looking to secure more silverware in the form of the Wylie Cup, should their squad mates not have already secured it earlier in the day. UCD have all the recent form in this event, having not lost since 2018. Perhaps the only weakness this crew could possibly have heading into this race is fatigue, with some of the athletes racing three events before this race, most likely in an attempt to pick up points for the overall competition. The coaching team must be very confident in the physiology of their athletes to perform at the highest level multiple times in only one afternoon.
University of Galway (UG)
University of Galway will be racing side-by-side with UCD for the first time this season at this regatta. This crew is similar to their intermediate crew who dominated the category at Erne Head of the River. UG are without their trialling scullers in the crew, but based on the result in Enniskillen, the impressive sculling ability of UG’s triallists doesn’t translate directly to speed in the eight. This crew is most likely to topple UCD’s recent domination of this event at this regatta of the crews who have entered but still have to ensure they execute their race perfectly to challenge the very strong UCD crew.
University College Cork (UCC)
University College Cork are fielding an impressive crew full of international talent. This crew is the only one racing this event that made the trip to the Thames for the Head of the River Race and were likely disappointed with their 48th place finish given the multiple Irish U23 athletes in their boat. There has been one substitution in this crew since taking to the Tideway. How UCC transition from the 6.8km head race to the 2k event will be vital; given the other universities didn’t travel to London, they will have had longer to prepare for the university championships than UCC has had. Unless they have nailed their preparations for this regatta, UCC could be on the back foot.
Trinity College Dublin
Trinity College is historically a giant of Irish university rowing. They are far ahead in the number of Wylie Cups won compared to the other universities. However, there has been a notable lack of talent walking in the gates at College Green in recent years. It is commendable that Trinity will still participate in this event; as other universities aren’t racing this event or even attending the regatta, the Trinity coaches could easily have chosen not to compete at this level. Unfortunately for Trinity, they line up in the lane adjacent to their arch-rivals UCD, a crew they would have most likely preferred to be as far away from as possible, given the calamitous Gannon Cup result. The Trinity oarsmen will likely be trying to ignore the UCD crew to their left-hand side and focusing on taking a scalp from UCC or UG.
Prediction
It is hard to look past UCD’s complete domination of the Gannon Cup race three weeks before this event. Given this UCD crew’s impressive fitness and technical ability, it is difficult to foresee UG putting in a performance capable of beating this crew. UG should have the strength to hold off a challenge from UCC, as well as UCC over Trinity.
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