Munsters lodge objection against Dolphin

YOUNG MUNSTER will today challenge Dolphin’s passage to Saturday’s AIB League Division Two final at Lansdowne Road.

The Limerick club, beaten by Dolphin in the final seconds of last weekend’s semi-final, and denied promotion by a sequence of results in Dublin, will alert the Irish Rugby Union to Dolphin’s use of an ‘illegal’ player in their squad over the last two weeks.

Dolphin are due to meet Terenure at Lansdowne Road this weekend, but IRFU administration manager Gordon Black will today be faced with a decision, when a letter of objection arrives on his desk, as to whether there is a case to answer. Mr Black was made aware of a problem yesterday, but said he had not received any official notification of an objection.

Young Munster admitted that they had objected to the presence of a specific player in the Dolphin squad for the games against Bective Rangers and against them last weekend.

The player’s only involvement was to come on as a late substitute in Dolphin’s dramatic win over Young Munster last Saturday.

It appears that Dolphin youngster Andrew O’Driscoll is the player in question.

Dolphin are unaware of any official complaint but a club source suggested that O’Driscoll’s clearance had been sought and granted by the IRFU.

Meanwhile, UL Bohemians are still fuming with the Munster Branch following the rejection of their appeal against Cashel.

UL Bohs played Cashel in the semi-final of The Webb Cup, a Thirds’ or Junior Two competition, on April 17, and lost the game 12-11.

UL Bohs subsequently objected on the basis that four Cashel players had also played for the club in the Munster Senior Cup. The objection and a subsequent appeal were rejected.

UL Bohemians PRO Stephen O’Dowd said: “What about the branch’s responsibility to uphold the rules? In this situation, one team upheld the rules, the other did not.”