Old rivals Con and Shannon square-off in table topper

OLD rivals Cork Constitution and Shannon, two of the most highly featured teams throughout the history of the AIB League, meet in a hugely important clash at Temple Hill this afternoon (2.30pm) — a fixture postponed due to adverse weather conditions in January.

The weather also forced the abandonment of the St Mary’s College-Garryowen clash on the same date, and these two teams will meet again at Templeville Road to sort out that particular outstanding issue.

This was to be a week off for the four clubs concerned, but the IRFU, running out of options for dates, decided the fixtures must go ahead, even if Garryowen now have to turn around and travel north to Ballynahinch on Saturday for an AIB Cup semi-final.

Constitution are also involved in that tournament but stay in Munster for a clash against Young Munster.

Club coach Brian Walsh is looking forward to the game, even though he is not yet sure about the availability of some players. “I have been away on Irish club international duty and a number of players have been involved with various teams over the last few weeks, so we’re a bit all over the place, really, in terms of selection.

“Still, I expect we could have Tim Ryan, Darragh Hurley, Billy Holland, Duncan Williams, Tom Gleeson and Evan Ryan available.

“I suppose when it comes to games between Con and Shannon there will always be a bit of quality, no matter what players are available for selection. This is one against two in the table as we prepare for a run-in to the completion of the programme.

“Both clubs had a difficult start to the campaign but we have settled in; the pressure is off in terms of qualification for the top eight, and now we can concentrate on fighting for places in the top four in order to get to the knock-out stages.

“It will be a huge boost if we manage to win this game and we will be under a bit of pressure should we lose.

“This, however, is a great opportunity and it’s a real test of where we are in terms of our development; we need to win these big games and, faced against Shannon, they don’t come much bigger,” he said.

The IRFU insistence that the game should go ahead today will hardly have been well received by Shannon coach Geoff Moylan, who has had to fly back at short notice from a holiday in Spain to take charge of the team.

In much the same way as Walsh, Moylan was unable to finalise a team but has no major injury worries to contend with, according to club spokesman Andrew McNamara.

Out half Tadhg Bennett played for 30 minutes in the club international against Scotland at the weekend and came through unscathed, while Michael Essex, elevated to the Munster bench recently, should also be available for selection.

Garryowen, meanwhile, were understood to be waiting until today to finalise a team. They expect to bring a squad of 24 players to Dublin.