The Quarter Finals of the Irish Senior and National Cups are one of the key days in the club calendar each year. There is heightened interest among the clubs involved as the possibility of charting a route to the final becomes a real prospect. it is a pity [though probably inevitable given the greater number of international commitments during the season] that key players are missing from their club teams. This is something that we may have to get used to from now on.
Turning to the ISC, there is a North v South encounter in all four matches. In recent years Leinster clubs have tended to dominate the competition [winning in 8 out of the last 10 years] but there looks to be a shift in power back to the North this season. Waringstown [who are the current holders and also won in 2011] are the favourites and have home advantage against North County. At the same time North County are the only Leinster team in any sort of league form - the other three clubs come into today’s encounters off heavy defeats over the past week.
Given that four teams each from the NCU Premier League and the CL OCD1 are in action it is a chance to compare the overall standard of the two leagues. Waringstown and Instonians are first and second in the NCU, while CIYMS and Derriaghy are 7th and 8th. Merrion and YMCA are also in the bottom reaches of the OCD1 so it will be interesting to see how the teams match up. The full list of matches are:
Waringstown v North County
Merrion v Derriaghy
CIYMS v YMCA
Instonians v Phoenix
In the National Cup there is at least one guaranteed Leinster team in the Semi-Finals as Rush take on Balbriggan in a local derby. In the only other match involving a LCU team - Laois take on Ballyspallen.
All matches are scheduled to start at 12.30