The Colours Match () is an annual

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

fixture between

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

(

Dublin University Football Club Dublin University Football Club (DUFC) is the rugby union club of Trinity College Dublin, Trinity College, in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, which plays in 2024–25 All-Ireland League (rugby union)#Division 1B, Division 1B of the All-Ir ...

) and

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

( University College Dublin R.F.C.) played since 1952. Rugby matches between UCD RFC and DUFC predate the inauguration of "The Colours Match", going back to 1919.

Background

Between 1919 and 1952 "friendly" matches took place annually between the clubs on a home and away basis. Their first meeting took place at

Terenure Terenure (), originally called ''Roundtown'', is a middle class suburb of Dublin in Ireland. It is located in the city's D6 and D6W postal districts. The population of all electoral divisions labelled as Terenure was 17,972 as of the 2022 ce ...

on 18 October 1919, won by Trinity.GPS (Sarsfield) Hogan, ''The Dublin Intervarsity Saga'', The 50th Anniversary Programme, UCD RFCJC Conroy, ''Colours History'', the 1974 Colours Match Programme, UCD RFCPeter Clarke (2002) ''UCD RFC and Dublin University FC: Colours and all!'', The Colours Match Programme 2002/03 There were also memorable encounters between UCD and TCD in the Leinster Senior Cup when the draw brought the sides together. Following the Senior Cup win of UCD over DUFC in 1948 by a dropped goal to nil, the idea of a Colours match was discussed between Harry Thrift of Trinity and Sarsfield Hogan of UCD, who had served together on the International Rugby Board, on which basis each University club would award Colours for the season. Lengthy negotiations ensued and with the cooperation of the

IRFU IRFU or Irfu may refer to: * Irish Rugby Football Union, The Irish rugby football union (IRFU), is the national rugby association of Ireland *Interprovincial Rugby Football Union, a four-team league that merged with the Westerm Interprovincial Rugb ...

committee and of the Lansdowne and Wanderers RFCs a scheme for an annual Colours match was finally agreed. The two Universities would play once a year in December. Each University would act as the host in turn and be responsible for the management of the match and for the entertainment. The host University, after consultation with the other side, would invite the referee for the match. A formal teams' dinner would be held after the match. It was envisaged that the match would be played on a Saturday. Increasing numbers of representative matches and the limited number of Saturdays on which

Lansdowne Road Lansdowne Road Stadium (, ) was a stadium in Dublin owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) that was primarily used for rugby union and association football matches. The stadium was demolished in 2007 to make way for the Aviva Stadium on ...

was available led to pressure to change the match from Saturdays to a mid-week date.

History

The Colours Match was inaugurated on 13 December 1952 at Lansdowne Road with the first title taken by UCDPeter Clarke & Susan Clarke
Down Through The Years
UCD RFC Trinity gained their first win in 1954 and the first drawn match came in 1955. The first 26 matches and the 35th to 38th matches were held at

stadium in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. The 27th to 33rd fixtures and the 39th through 60th matches were played at

Donnybrook Rugby Ground Donnybrook Stadium, known for sponsorship reasons as Energia Park, is a rugby union stadium in Donnybrook, Dublin 4, Ireland. The stadium has a capacity of 6,000, including a 2,500 seat covered grandstand which was completed in early 2008. Hi ...

, the traditional home of the

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

rugby union team. The 61st 63rd, 65th and 67th encounters took place at the

UCD Bowl The UCD Bowl, also known as the Belfield Bowl, is a rugby union and football stadium in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Ireland. It is the home ground of University College Dublin R.F.C. in the AIB All Ireland League and League of Ireland Premier ...

, Belfield, the 62nd match at

and the 64th, 66th and 68th editions in College Park Rugby Ground, Trinity College.

Trophy

A trophy, The Colours Cup, presented to the winner of the annual Colours Match, was inaugurated in 2002 to mark the Golden Jubilee of the first Colours Match in December 1962. It was first presented to the winners of the 51st Colours Match, UCD, in November 2002. The cup is in the form of a claret jug.

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

are the current holders beating

University College In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies f ...

by 22 points to 13 points on 30 March 2024 at College Park, Trinity College Dublin.

Other editions

Colours Matches are also played between Trinity and UCD in

women's rugby union Women's rugby union is a full contact team sport based on running with the ball in hand. The same laws are used in men's rugby union with the same sized pitch and same equipment. Women's rugby has become popular recently. These days, women's r ...

and other sports, such as

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

hurling Hurling (, ') is an outdoor Team sport, team game of ancient Gaelic culture, Gaelic Irish origin, played by men and women. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goa ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, Windsurfing, windsurfer, or Kitesurfing, kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (Land sa ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

, and

fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...

Famous participants

Dick Spring Richard Martin Spring (born 29 August 1950) is an Irish former Labour Party (Ireland), Labour Party politician who served as Tánaiste from 1982 to 1987, 1992 to November 1994, and December 1994 to 1997, Leader of the Labour Party (Ireland), L ...

Politician

Peter Sutherland Peter Denis Sutherland (25 April 1946 – 7 January 2018) was an Irish businessman, barrister and Fine Gael politician who served as UN Special Representative for International Migration from 2006 to 2017. He was known for serving in various in ...

Chairman BP

Brian O'Driscoll Brian Gerard O'Driscoll (born 21 January 1979) is an Irish former professional rugby union player. He played at outside Centre (rugby union), centre for the Irish provincial team Leinster Rugby, Leinster and for Ireland national rugby union te ...

Ireland Captain

Jamie Heaslip James Heaslip (born 15 December 1983) is an Irish people, Irish former rugby union player who represented Leinster Rugby, Leinster, Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland and the British & Irish Lions. He played as a Number 8 (rugby union), ...

Ireland Captain

Paddy Johns Patrick Stephen Johns, known as Paddy Johns (born 19 February 1968, in Portadown) was an Irish rugby union player from 1990 to 2000. He played mainly as a lock and occasionally in the back-row. He won 59 caps, scoring 4 tries and 20 points. He ...

Ireland Captain

Results

1950s

* Acting Captain

1960s

* Acting Captain

1970s

* Acting Captain

1980s

*Acting Captain

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

By total wins

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colours Match College sports rivalries Rugby union competitions in Ireland Rugby union at Irish universities Dublin University Football Club University College Dublin R.F.C. Recurring sporting events established in 1952 Rugby union rivalries in Ireland 1952 establishments in Ireland University and college rugby union competitions Sports competitions at Irish universities