Keane struggling to face St Mary's

Killian Keane, the Garryowen captain who led his side to last year's AIB League final, is struggling to make his club's home semi-final tie against St Mary's on Saturday.

The international centre cum outhalf, who has scored 101 points for Garryowen in the league this season, missed last Saturday's win at Young Munster with an injury to a bone in his knee. In a bid to solve the problem Keane flew to see a specialist in Bristol on Monday and will also see Brian Hearson in the Blackrock clinic later this week, but places his chances of being fit as "hopefully 50-50 at this stage.

"Basically the injury is a wastage of the bone and I've had problems with it in the past. In fact I shouldn't have played in the A international against Scotland. It's going to need an operation but I'm just trying to see if I can get by in the short-term and play in this game."

Not only would his absence be an unfortunate blow for the player himself but obviously for his club as well. For starters, it places an additional place-kicking burden on 18-year-old out-half Jeremy Staunton. Although seemingly immune from nerves and well capable of landing them from everywhere on his day, the gifted Staunton had a poor enough day with the boot against Munsters.

John Hall has several options available to him, and could repeat last Saturday's ploy of pairing Kiwi Rob Durno with Kevin Hartigan. Jack Clarke also comes back into the equation (he was away on business last weekend), although his rightwing replacement, Melvin McNamara, scored his third try of the campaign, while Conor Kilroy's recent return to the squad gives Hall an additional place-kicking option.

Up front, Garryowen have better news with the anticipated return from injury of Shane Leahy, although here again Hall has several options as Dave Peters went well in the second-row alongside Ross Leahy while Fergus Costello is a fourth second-row option.

Garryowen are expected to announce their side tonight whereas their opponents name an unchanged side for the third game running.

Their joint coach, Steve Hennessy, takes umbrage at the notion, expressed on television, that his team slipped into the play-offs via the back door. "We won five of our last six games," he points out.

"We needed a bit of luck," he concedes, "and Galwegians really put it up to us. We didn't play well but it's a Cup situation now. I always said that if we got into the top four we'd be a force. This is going to be a major hurdle for us."

Of some concern to him is the fact that St Mary's have never won an AIL game in Dooradoyle. Indeed, in 15 years as a player with St Mary's and two years as a coach, Hennessy cannot recall winning a competitive match at the venue, "certainly in the 90s".

However, he takes some solace in pushing Garryowen to a 13-12 win there last season, and in ending their Limerick bogey with three successive wins in Clifford Park as well as Rosbrien in the last few seasons.

Garryowen, left flying the flag for Limerick, are hopeful this will expand the crowd to at least the 45,000 mark.

Cork Constitution, meanwhile, are bracing themselves for possibly an even bigger crowd than the estimated 5,500 which attended last Saturday's tumultuous win over Shannon, all the more so as Buccaneers are liable to swell the crowd with 1,000 travelling fans or so.

Irish A centre Cian Mahony is a major doubt due to a pulled hamstring sustained in the first five minutes last Saturday, although the other casualty from that game, Conor Mahony, is not a cause for concern. If the former is ruled out, then Alan Byrne or Anthony Horgan (with John Kelly then moving to midfield) are the options.

The Buccaneers try scorer in Saturday's win over Lansdowne, fullback Robbie Lee, sustained a calf injury which forced his withdrawal near the end but coach Eddie O'Sullivan is hopeful that "it isn't as bad as was first feared." His main headache is whether to recall Donal Rigney, an original selection for that game, ahead of the youngest of the clan, Colm, in the second row.

Similarly to Hennessy, the disadvantage of being away is O'Sullivan's primary concern.

As with Buccaneers, Constitution have a 100 per cent home record from six games this season, which included a 32-25 win over their semi-final opponents back in the fourth round on January 16th when six tries were shared.

O'Sullivan cites that game as the turning point in Constitution's season. "They had just lost unluckily to Garryowen, their third defeat in their opening four games, and were under fierce pressure to beat us. After that, they went from strength to strength."

Indeed, it kick-started a run of seven successive wins for the Cork outfit. "They have an excellent back-row. Ultan O'Callaghan is a powerful player and David Corkery seems to be back to his best. O'Meara and O'Gara are fine players, I worked with them in the under-21s, so their middle five are as good as any, and they have good pace out wide and a decent tight five. As AIL sides go, they're a very balanced unit."

In many respects, the pressure is on Constitution, and less so Buccaneers. Regardless of whether their remarkable odyssey goes any further, there is a compelling case for making them the club of the season.

In the event of either semi-final ending level after 80 minutes, extra time of 10 minutes each way will be played. If still tied, the club who has scored the most tries in the match will be declared the winner. If that fails to resolve the outcome, then the club with the higher league placing will progress to the final.