Sport, bloody hell
Ultimately there can only be one winner in sport. There has to be a loser. And losing sucks. It's the worst feeling in the world when you've put your body and soul into something to ultimately fail and come up short.
All that effort. All those extra sessions in they gym and it can all be snuffed out in the course of just over an hour.
And it's that gut wrenching feeling that will motivate the players of Castletroy College to go back even harder at it next year after events at Thomond Park tonight. They suffered a loss to Crescent Comprehensive College in the Munster Schools Junior cup semi-final by 8-5 and were inconsolable afterwards.
We've seen earlier this week
the joy of winning at senior schools level in Leinster but tonight a brilliant picture highlights the pain of losing but also the mutual respect between side who gave their all.
It shows Mark Edwards consoling the Castletroy captain Conor Bermingham after the game.
The image was taken by Inpho's James Crombie and is simple but so very powerful.
