Fintan McAllister [who will be in action today for Malahide v Terenure]
As clubs start on the home stretch in the RCD1 and RCD2 leagues there is still much to play for as clubs chase titles and promotion, and seek to avoid getting embroiled in a relegation battle. That said the two tables have a familiar feel to them with Clontarf [in D1] in a dominant position as they have been for much of the season. Today they take on nearest rivals Phoenix in Castle Avenue and a win today will certainly make it difficult for any team to catch them - even with six further rounds to play. North County are best placed to make a late challenge but have to make up 47 points [which effectively requires Clontarf to lose three matches].
In D2 Merrion are even more firmly ensconced at the top of the table. Today they take on Rush in Anglesea Road and victory would see them overtake Dublin University and, with an existing points gaps of 121 over fourth placed North Kildare, would all but mathematically guarantee them one of the two promotion spots. The only team that has any chance of catching them is Malahide and they have to make up at least three wins on the leaders over the second half of the season.
It is likely therefore that attention will focus on the bottom half of the D1 table. Cork County in their last game had an important and morale boosting win over YMCA in a re-fixed match but are still 31 points adrift [and the two teams above them have yet to play each other]. In all probability Cork will have to win at least the majority of their remaining fixtures to avoid automatic relegation. Excepting the two top, just about any of the other five teams could be drawn into the relegation battle - but most attention will be focussed on YMCA and Leinster. Clearly the result from their outstanding match will have an important bearing on this - but with only two wins each they are looking the most likely to have to face a play-off with the second team in D2. And this brings us back to Malahide who still need 82 points to overtake Dublin University and take this second spot. This means winning four of their remaining six games. The count-down begins today.
The matches for today [with the YMCA game scheduled to start 30 minutes early at 12.30] in RCD1 are:
Clontarf v Phoenix [Castle Avenue]
YMCA v North County [Claremount Road]
Pembroke v The Hills [Sydney Parade]
Cork County v Leinster [Mardyke]
The RCD2 matches all start at 13.00.
Railway U v North Kildare [Park Avenue]
Terenure v Malahide [Terenure]
Merrion v Rush [Anglesea Rd]
The teams as sent in are:
Clontarf: Joe Morrissey [C], Sameer Dutt, Declan Gallagher, Ropu Islam, Waqar Azmat, Bill Coghlan, Andrew Poynter, Conor Kelly, Robert Forrest, John Mooney, Brad Barnes [W]
Phoenix: Nicolaas Pretorius [C/W], Reinhardt Strydom, Ari Karvelas, Tom Anders, Ian Anders, Rory Anders, Andy Brawders, Adam Chester, Graham Morris, Tiaan De Wet Lotter, Theo Dempsey (12th)
YMCA: J Tector [C], T Fisher, S Singh, O Gunning, H Tector, S Murphy [W], R Gamble, J Parkinson, A Blair White, A Abassi, P Flanagan. Andrew Blair White makes his senior debut for YMCA.
North County:
Pembroke: Lawson P [C], Balbirnie J, Cutler N, Garth JJ, Gupta S, Hoey B, Hoey G, Lawson T, Mullen C, Tucker L [W]
The Hills: Max Sorensen [C], Mark Donegan[W],, Cormac McLoughlin-Gavin, Albert Van der Merwe, Sean Terry, Hamid Shah, Ryan Cartwright, Naseer Shoukat, Tomás Rooney Murphy, Luke Clinton, Yaqoob Ali
Cork County: S. Grobler [C], R. Duggan, C. Hassett [W], M. Bauer, G. King, A. Cawley, S. Wattoo, A. O' Reilly, K. Bray, T. Clifford, K. O' Sullivan
Leinster:
Railway Union: Kenny Carroll [C], Rachit Gaur, Alex Stiles, Kevin O'Brien, Ranil Dhammika, Dhram Singh, Robin Russell, Mo Tariq, Saad Ullah, Ciaran Divney, Abdullah Hafeez
North Kildare: Neil Vorster [C], Sean Dalton, Josh Uddin, Manjeet Singh, Tehseen Hashmi, Robert Neavyn, Mathew Auret, Neil Vorster, Tom Satchwell, Paul Ryan, Daire O'Neill, Gulab Singh
Terenure: Conor Mullen [C], Colm Morgan [W], David Langford-Smith, Dónal Lynch, Givon Christian, James Smith, Kenny McDonald, Mohammad Arshad, M Waqar Hussain, Subby Ramnathpur, Yasir Cheema - 12th: Michael Cotter
Malahide: Alan Reynolds [C], James Newland, Fintan McAllister, Sean Davey, Danny O'Shea, Neil Boyne, SJ De Klerk, David O'Halloran, Callum Riches, Keith Reynolds, Arjun Muntha.
Merrion: Dom Joyce [C], John Anderson, Jamie Brown, Vikas Dhiman, Bhavesh Lakohatia, Max Neville, Tom Stanton, Sean Stanton, R Allwright, Patrick Tice [W], Tyrone Kane.
Rush: Neil Rock(C/W), Allan Eastwood, Aaron McGuire, Alex Neary, Saadat (Tipu) Gull, Shahid Iqbal, Stephen Doheny, Sean Monks, Nathan McGuire, Daniel Thorne, Josh Murphy.