The first round of the Irish Senior and National Cups take place today. The recent record of Leinster teams in these competitions has been excellent - winning the ISC seven times in the last ten years and the NC three times in its shorter six year history.
Eight Leinster team take part in the first round of the ISC [Pembroke and The Hills go through automatically to R2]. Balbriggan [v Armagh], Merrion [v Donemana], Leinster [v Eglington] and North County [v CIYMS] make the trip north. Clontarf [v Brigade], Malahide [v Muckamore], Phoenix [v Ardmore] and YMCA [v Cork Harlequins] have home advantage. Fortunately the weather looks set fine so hopefully there will be no need for re-fixes.
With so few matches played up North so far this season there is no current form to go on - although the lack of match practice for Northern teams may be a factor in itself. Only two teams in the NCU have played more than one match this season and neither is in action today against Leinster sides. It is much the same in the North West where only Bready, Eglington and Donemana have made it onto the pitch twice this season.
In the National Cup, Laois [v Killyclooney] and Rush [v Clifftonville Academy] have home fixtures and Terenure [v Templepatrick], Longford [v Limerick] and DLR County [v Laurelvale] all travel. Railway Union have a walk-over in their match.
With players missing mainly due to exams there are a number of new names. Leinster teams in the ISC [as far as they are known] for today are:
Leinster: George Dockrell [C], Ian O'Herlihy [W], Gareth Delany, Monil Patel, Fionn O'Sullivan, Joe Carroll, David Lucas, Finn Conaty, Patrick Lynch, Saqib Bahadur, Anees Ahmed, Bilal Azhar.
Malahide: Fintan McAllister [C/W], James Newland, Michael Hingston, Greg Ford, Matt Ford, Neil Boyne, Peter Chase, David O Halloran, Paul Abignesh, Keith Reynolds, Arjun Muntha.
North County: Niall McGovern [C], Jamie Grassi [W], Malcolm Nofal, Tomas Sheil, Andrew Sheridan, Conor Sheil, Sean Kingston, Cian Mulvaney, Eddie Richardson, Sean Rooney, Ankit Gugale.
YMCA: Jack Tector [C], Sam Murphy [W], Oliver Gunning, Simi Singh, Harry Tector, Bobby Gamble, Jarred Barnes, Padraic Flanagan, Andrew Blair White, Aviral Shukla, James Parkinson.
Phoenix: Tom Anders [C], Sine Tsotsa [W], Richard Lawrence, Alex Karvelas, Rory Anders, Adam Chester, Reinhardt Strydom, Ben White, Brad Kneebone, Gordy Miller, Fletcher Coutts.
Clontarf: Joe Morrissey [C], Robert Forrest [W], Declan Gallagher, Shariful Islam, Waqar Azmat, Obus Pienaar, Andrew Poynter, David Delany, Conor Kelly, Sameer Dutt, Bill Coghlan.
Balbriggan: Duane Harper [C], Connor Fletcher [W], Adrian Harper, Ethesham Ahmed, Timycen Maruma, Farooq Nasr, Kashif Ali, Emad Omer, Adam Keefe, Nathan Rooney, Abdul Samad
Merrion: Dom Joyce [C], Patrick Tice [W], John Anderson, Tyrone Kane, Jack Carty, Poonish Mehra, Michael Lewis, JJ Walsh, Sean Stanton, David Langford-Smith, Niranjan Shankar.
The teams for the National Cup are:
Terenure: Michael Cotter [C], Josh Uddin [W], Kenny McDonald, Seamus Lynch, Alex Matthews, Brandon Graber, Diarmuid Lynch, Donal Lynch, Sid Nair, Zeeshan Khudabuksh, Patrick Ryan.
Rush: Neil Rock [C/W], Conor Armstrong, Saadat (Tipu) Gull, Allan Eastwood, Jeremy Bray, Conor Mullen, Shahid Iqbal, Prashanth Viswanath, Subramaniya Ramnathpur, Daniel Coffey, Aaron McGuire.
We will do our best to keep on top of what is happening across the country in the Match Centre - so please keep sending in updates.