However, while Blackrock and Belvedere's collision course to this year's Powerade Senior Cup semi-final has captured attention since the draw was made in December, it will have to be some match to equal the meeting between the two sides 52 years ago.

Without doubt the most celebrated game in the competition's 119-year history, the 1954 final has simply become known as 'the Tony O'Reilly final'. For the Belvedere captain on the day, what has given that game such resonance was the fact that an even greater sense of destiny had always surrounded it.

"The thing about that final was that it had a 10-year buildup, really. All through our time in school the talk was always of Blackrock and Belvedere as both teams were developing these two fantastic squads of players. We were always set to meet."

Its story has been well documented. Marginal favourites on the day, O'Reilly's side found themselves 6-3 down to Niall Brophy's Blackrock.

Despite claiming his team's solitary score, O'Reilly couldn't find another gap as Blackrock defended heroically to close off every angle. As Belvedere finally looked to have made the breakthrough, a pass was superbly intercepted by Gerry Hill to win the game 11-3, giving Blackrock their 43rd victory and famously leave O'Reilly without a Senior Cup medal.

For all he has achieved in life since . . . 29 caps for Ireland, becoming the Lions' alltime record try-scorer through two tours and, of course, his expansive business empire . . . he has consistently stated that while representing his school in the final of the Senior Cup was his greatest achievement, his biggest disappointment was failing to win it. Whatever mileage and laughter he manages to get out of that as an anecdote, his desire for the medal has certainly been borne out by his actions.

Returning to his alma mater for the launch of a book celebrating Belvedere's Rugby Heroes on Friday night, he mentions it to every member of the school's 2005 cup-winning team he meets. Indeed, it was an obsession that didn't just arise from defeat on the day.

"I had done my leaving cert the previous year [in 1953] and, with a year out, decided to go back and repeat. And I didn't go back to study philosophy or just chill out or anything like that. I went back to win a senior cup medal.

And I really prepared for it. It was the focus of my whole year, I was training twice a day, it was intense."

It is that intensity too, O'Reilly believes, that ensures the Senior Cup experience stays with a player all his life.

"Unless you've played on a Senior Cup team, it's hard to understand. When you're 17 or 18 years old, it's the centre of your life. So, when you lose, it really feels like the end of the world."

The feeling has certainly been etched onto his consciousness. He can vividly remember every detail of the day. The blue-and-white flags, the manner in which Belvedere conceded that decisive last try and the disappointment he felt for his own mother . . . possibly more than for himself . . . as she had to watch Mrs Brophy present the trophy instead. However, what he remembers most of all is the advice his father gave him prior to the game. Urging him to be sporting regardless of the result, O'Reilly made sure to go up and shake hands with every member of the Blackrock team. That, more than anything, was to show how resonant the '54 game really was.

"Years later, when I was with Heinz and we were doing a deal with the American company, Del Monte actually, and I was trying to talk their representative around, he said to me, 'listen, when I was growing up the priest in our parish had worked in your school Belvedere and he told us about you playing in that Superbowl' . . . as he called it of course . . . 'and your behaviour afterwards. We'd be happy to do business with you.' And I thought to myself, that bloody final!"

Back to the present and thoughts turn to the replay at Lansdowne Road on Friday.

Blackrock will be looking for revenge for last year's defeat in the final. Despite his strong respect and admiration for the Holy Ghost school, given his own Senior Cup history he has little sympathy.

"Oh, I'll be there. And there's only one possible prediction. Belvedere!"

As O'Reilly found 52 years ago, however, there is unfortunately nothing inevitable about that.