AIL clashes with Celtic final

RUGBY: A lack of co-operation between clubs and lack of leadership from the IRFU has again led to a clash of fixtures this weekend, when a full programme of AIL matches will kick off at almost the same times as the Munster-Neath Celtic League final.

As was the case when their first division game at home to UCD clashed with Munster's match away to Perpignan three weeks ago, Shannon had again asked the opposing club - in this case Lansdowne - for a postponement of 24 hours from Saturday. But again Shannon were refused and once more have had their appeal rejected by the IRFU's appeals sub-committee, chaired by Peter Boyle, at a hearing at the Dublin Airport Hotel.

Shannon argue that as Munster seem intent on bringing their entire squad of 32 to Cardiff for the final, they will be denied a full complement of 12 contracted players in addition to the normal clutch of players unavailable though injury.

"To be honest I'm getting frustrated and sick of it," said Shannon coach Geoff Moylan yesterday. "I've been talking to quite a few other coaches and, along with other people, they are going to walk away from the game.

"I'm leaving work at 5.0 today, driving to training and I'll be lucky to be home by midnight, and that's three nights a week, but what's the point?

"The players want to play and the Munster management want them to play, yet we're just getting shot down the whole time."

An IRFU spokesman, in defending the appeals sub-committee's action, cited "the league regulations and Lansdowne's opposition to a Sunday game".

Yet, as Moylan points out, the union switched the entire AIL programme to a Sunday on the weekend of the Ireland-Argentina game.

In addition, the league's regulations merely state: "Matches shall be played on Saturdays, but the league sub-committee shall have full power to arrange matches for Sundays or other days and to alter previously fixed dates and venues should circumstances arise to warrant such alteration."

If circumstances such as an Irish province contesting a major final don't warrant it, what does?

Lansdowne would facilitate Shannon with a 1.0 kick-off at Lansdowne Road so they could see the Celtic League final, but Shannon could not agree to this because, following their trip to Belfast Harlequins last weekend, this would mean travelling on a second successive Friday - too big a demand for a mostly part-time squad.

In explaining their reasons for refusing to hold the game on Sunday, Lansdowne president Paddy Gahan said: "We want to play the match on Saturday because we have other match committments with our J1s and under-20s."

Meanwhile, in another example of the lack of communication between clubs, Thomond turned down a request from Sunday's Well for an earlier kick-off to their division two clash because, according to their chairman of rugby and fixtures secretary Declan Cusack, "We didn't want to be upsetting guys by travelling earlier in the day".