Quartet poised to make timely return for Con
Scrum-half O’Meara will be making his first appearance of the season in the Constitution colours, having been busy with Leinster in their all-conquering surge to the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup. Williams’ only appearance came in the victory over Buccaneers in Novmeber, while O’Callaghan and O’Driscoll have been equally restricted because of their Munster commitments.
With the Celtic League trophy safely tucked away and an interval of two months before the next Munster game, several of the club’s contracted players will be available to Con on a regular basis over the coming weeks. This development could hardly have come at a better time with a recent run of bad results seeing the club more or less drop out of contention for a top-four finish and instead, descend into the relegation zone.
“We’re certainly in the wrong area right now and relegation is a realistic proposition,” said Con coach Chris Cantillon last night.
“In fairness, it’s not that we’ve been playing badly. Take last week’s game against Clontarf. We were doing well for the first 39 minutes when Ultan (O’Callaghan) was sin-binned and almost immediately they mauled their way over for a try to give them a good half time advantage. Then the second half was going alright until Ian Murray took a punch and had to have 12 stitches in a cut over his eye. Gareth Murray was hardly on the field as a replacement when he and a Clontarf player saw yellow, so it was impossible for us to operate to a game plan.”
Clontarf duly coasted home against a Con side that lacked the physical presence to cope with a forward orientated side that so far at any rate has snuffed out most challenges and which leads the table by a commanding six points. Cantillon expects a tough game tomorrow from a Blackrock team very much in the running for a top four finish although he is quietly confident that the return of a number of professionals will see a big difference in his side’s performance.
“They will provide us with the physical strength that has been missing for the past few matches,” he reasons. “We have some fine young prospects, guys like second-rows Kevin Coughlan and Shane O’Connor, but a vacuum exists between their stage of development and that of guys like Mick O’Driscoll and Donnacha O’Callaghan, not to mention Jim Williams.”
Defeat against Blackrock would plunge Con ever deeper into the relegation mire. Victory, on the other hand, would open up the exciting possibility of actually reigniting their challenge for a quarter-final spot given that their three following matches are against UL Bohemians, Co Carlow and Terenure College, the three clubs currently below them in the table. Maximum points from those games would not be an impossibility, especially with a near full-strength side, and they complete their programme with matches against Belfast Harlequins and Dungannon.
Clontarf’s reign at the top of the table will continue no matter what happens in their home game against Garryowen who, however, almost certainly lack the forward strength to stop the march of the pride of Dublin’s north side. David Wallace, who has substituted in each of Garryowen’s last two matches, continues his rehabilitation.
Second-placed Ballymena face a tricky assignment at St Mary’s College, but Lansdowne in third spot are almost certain to prove too strong for struggling Co Carlow. Holders Shannon have, like Con, suffered in recent weeks because of Munster’s busy schedule but they will have some of their big guns back when they are likely to plunge neighbours UL Bohemians ever deeper into trouble.
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