Ursula Jacob: Ashbourne Cup controversy handling 'appalling'

Ursula Jacob believes this week's controversy over the Ashbourne Cup has overshadowed the culmination of the competition and the handling of the issue has been "appalling".

TU Dublin were crowned Ashbourne Cup champions on Sunday with a victory after extra-time over UCC.

But the lead-up to this week's latter stages of camogie's third-level showpiece competition was marred by controversy.

UL thought they had done enough to qualify for this week's semi-finals on scoring difference by beating Maynooth by 34 points in their final group game, believing that a 33-point swing in their favour was what was needed based on the competition's official tables.

But they discovered this week that they had, in fact, been eliminated due to a scoring difference discrepancy from a result between DCU and Maynooth on 29 November.

The Allianz League Sunday panel discuss the controversy surrounding this weekend's camogie competition, the Ashbourne Cup. pic.twitter.com/Ap7D8cmuWu

Speaking on RTÉ's Allianz League Sunday, Wexford camogie great Jacob was critical of the handling of the matter.

"Firstly, the Ashbourne Cup competition is a fantastic tournament. It should be one of the highlights of the camogie season but this weekend has been completely overshadowed by this controversy," she said.

"I really feel for the players involved. It's just really appalling how it's all been dealt with.

"I'd have serious questions over how the whole process was handled (and) how we got to this stage because UL were preparing for an Ashbourne Cup semi-final three days ago and their details were included in the weekend's programme and then they have to go up to UCD and just watch UCC and DCU play out a semi-final.

"There's lots of questions. I'd really question the kind