Dangerous IT Carlow have the firepower to test mettle of St Pat’s

Fitzgibbon Cup and Sigerson Cup previews

Fitzgibbon Cup Group B:

St Pat’s v IT Carlow, Na Fianna (B Brady, Louth), 2pm.

Having fallen heavily to WIT last week (1-19 to 0-9), a second defeat for the Drumcondra students would all but end their interest in this year’s competition.

St Pat’s had only three scorers last time out, with Patrick Curran shooting two-thirds of their tally, and a far greater spread will be required if they are to produce an upset this afternoon.

IT Carlow looked very good when putting DCU to the sword and have an array of astute score-getters in Laois’s Stephen Maher and Charles Dwyer, Waterford’s Colin Dunford, Meath’s Jack Fagan and Chris Bolger of Kilkenny.

Verdict:

IT Carlow

Sigerson Cup first round: NUIG v UCD, Dangan, 2pm.

NUIG were rarely troubled when dispensing of Trinity last week, but they can expect a far sterner examination from the league champions.

John Divilly’s side had three decent workouts in the O’Byrne Cup; losing to Laois by the minimum and then overcoming eventual champions Meath and Carlow.

Travelling west today as part of the Belfield squad is footballer-of-the-year Jack McCaffrey, Paul Mannion, David Byrne, Tommy Moolick (Kildare), and Liam Casey (Tipperary).

Verdict:

UCD