Buccaneers not settling for a draw

It's been a long time coming - five weeks since the last full round of AIB League action - but after the recent famine comes Saturday's feast. Six teams are still in the hunt for the four play-off places, while mathematically three sides are still seeking to avoid relegation from the top flight.

The two crunch top-four games are undoubtedly those at Moher Road in Ballinasloe between Buccaneers and Lansdowne and at Temple Hill in Cork where Constitution meet the holders Shannon, who must win to preserve their hopes of a fifth title in a row.

You'd have got long odds on newly promoted Buccaneers entertaining big spenders Lansdowne on the last regular Saturday of the campaign with a place in the top four at stake. Buccaneers, Lansdowne, Cork Constitution and Garryowen are bracketed together on 14 points. Presuming either Shannon and/or St Mary's win and move on to 14 points as well, then effectively the Moher Road meeting is a win-or-bust affair.

However, Buccaneers' coach Eddie O'Sullivan says: "I'd rather look on it as a win-or-win game, as opposed to a win-or-lose scenario. All I want is that we play to our potential, which was the disappointing factor in our last outing in Shannon.

"If we play up to scratch and Lansdowne play up to scratch, then we still mightn't beat them. But as long as we play, then either way we'll have done well this season. If anything we've overachieved this year, and a top four place would be the icing on the cake."

O'Sullivan is clearly trying to remove some of the pressure from his charges for a monumental game in front of one of the biggest crowds of the season and a live TV audience. He has a point when he states that Lansdowne "are really under pressure given they've been top four material all season."

Even so, the odds have tilted toward Buccaneers, bearing in mind O'Sullivan's team are much nearer full strength. O'Sullivan has even recalled Donal Rigney for his 20-year-old brother Colm in the second row, trading experience and another line-out option for some mobility around the park. He's also toying with his options at left wing.

By contrast, Lansdowne have delayed selection until later in the week and will almost certainly be without the Irish A duo of Angus McKeen (calf muscle) and Barry Everitt (broken finger), the latter having picked up his injury at the Hong Kong sevens.

Another casualty of that event was Shane Horgan, who is receiving daily treatment on his pelvic strain, while there are also real doubts over Reggie Corrigan (leg injury), Gordon D'Arcy (hamstring) and Rory Kearns (ankle). Lansdowne are hopeful that all four will make it, although it's worth noting that neither Corrigan nor D'Arcy have played since being taken off against Wales A on February 19th - eight weeks ago.

A mutually beneficial draw would of course steer both sides through to the last four, and here the Lansdowne PRO Joe Leddin claims: "I've been talking to Fly (Noel) Mannion (a former Lansdowne player) and we've agreed that each club will have a marquee in the opposite 22s, and neither team is allowed take the ball anywhere near them."

O'Sullivan, meantime, comforts himself with the thought that "Lansdowne won't fancy it", a reference to the Moher Road, a pitch nowhere near as manicured as their alternate home of Keane Park in Athlone, where the crowd are far closer to the pitch and where Buccaneers haven't been beaten in three years. He admits that choosing Moher Road's softer pitch for their three Leinster visitors was a deliberate ploy.

The set-to at Temple Hill is no less earth-shuddering, where Constitution know they could probably do themselves (and the other semi-finalists) a favour by removing Shannon forthwith. Constitution await fitness checks on their two Munster wingers Anthony Horgan and John Kelly who, remarkably, have only played 28 minutes together for their club in the last two seasons.

Shannon have doubts over Eddie Halvey, forced to withdraw from the Ireland-Italy A game with a back injury, and fellow flanker Alan Quinlan, who picked up a leg injury in that game, too. But they are hopeful both will be fit, as well as injured scrum-half Simon Johnson.

St Mary's, allowing for season-long absentee Gareth Gannon, have been able to select a full-strength side for the second game running for their trip to relegated Galwegians, where they will probably have to win in the region of 40-plus points unless Constitution beat Shannon and the Moher Road game produces a winner.

Garryowen, though still to pick, expect to be at full strength for their trip to Young Munster, where a win would almost certainly copper-fasten a second successive home semi-final as well as a top-four place. Their hosts are without Peter Clohessy, playing for a World XV in Argentina, and utility back Mick Lynch due to a broken finger. Derek Tobin and Brian Buckley are also still sidelined.

Ballymena will be unchanged for their trip to Blackrock, who await a fitness check on Alan McGowan for their crunch relegation match. Third from bottom Clontarf, with a better differential of only 10 points, wait on Mark Woods, Ollie Winchester, Bernard Jackman and Warren O'Kelly.

DLSP travel to Portadown on Friday without their captain Kenny Wheelock, although he will join his team-mates for the match the next day by helicopter from his former club Enniscorthy, following his marriage on Friday. Win, lose or draw, DLSP will throw an end-of-season party for the club and Wheelock on Saturday night, though victory, coupled with Sunday's Well taking a point or two off Wanderers, would also make it a promotion party on the eve of their centenary season.

Winger Stephen Gormley is a casualty of their tense 10-8 win over Old Crescent on Sunday, when Brian Begley's failed touch-line conversion at the death effectively reduced the promotion race to a two-way fight between DLSP and Wanderers to accompany Dungannon into the top flight. However, out-half Dave O'Riordan completed a seconds game at the weekend to strengthen Phil Werahiko's hand.

Sale are the latest English Premiership One club to cut players' salaries and reduce their numbers. They have invited their players individually to meetings to discuss their future.