For the first time in history Lansdowne Road will be the venue for the meeting of two Munster sides when this afternoon defending champions Shannon play Garryowen in the final of the AIB League. So a unique occasion, but by no means a unique pairing for a rivalry with roots firmly embedded in history.

That rivalry was fashioned on the Munster club scene, and, since Shannon became a senior club nearly 50 years ago, it has grown in intensity. Prior to their elevation to senior status, many a Shannon man moved to Garryowen to play at senior level. Indeed, quite a few won Munster Junior Cup medals with Shannon and then went on to win senior medals in the colours of Garryowen.

The match today will evoke memories of many great Munster Senior Cup ties and finals between these two great clubs. It will be akin to the Munster Senior Cup final being transferred to Dublin 4. I have only one regret about the match today: that it is not for the final of the All-Ireland Cup, instead of being a contrived league decider.

Certainly the stakes are high, but is anyone seriously going to suggest that a national cup final would be any less appealing? My opposition to deciding the league title - and indeed that of many people to whom I have spoken, and they are not be any means all from Limerick - has been laid out before, and I am not going to repeat it.

Irish rugby could have had the best of both worlds, so to speak, by having a national cup competition out of the league. Had the two semi-finals of the league last weekend been two cup semi-finals, there is not a shred of doubt that the attendances would have been just as good as, if not better than, they were.

I have seen more than a few Munster Cup matches and finals in my time and the attendances at many of them were far greater than the crowds which attended at Thomond Park and Dooradoyle last weekend, good as they were. A few years ago, I remember, over 8,000 attended a cup semi-final replay on a midweek evening between Young Munster and Shannon.

Opposition to deciding the league by a knockout competition has nothing to do with alleged or perceived Munster insularity. It was, however, traditional insularity and self-preservation which delayed the start of the league, and some of the more vociferous now in relation to the league and its current structure would do well to remember some of the sentiments they issued in the not so long ago, including earlier this season, about the league and its very concept.

Of course, this afternoon will be a great and, I hope, memorable occasion; it would be even more meaningful if Shannon were going for a cup and league double.

I want to return to the question of attendances and a cup concept. In 1975, the IRFU, in conjunction with the Munster Branch and on the initiative of the late Kevin Quilligan, then president of the branch, arranged an All-Ireland Cup competition in Limerick to mark the centenary of the IRFU. That competition was contested by the four provincial cup winners. The semi-finals were between Garryowen and Galwegians and St Mary's College and Bangor. It was a double bill on a Saturday afternoon and there was a big attendance at Thomond Park. Garryowen and St Mary's College reached the final and it was a marvellous match and occasion.

That afternoon Thomond Park was packed to capacity. The match ended in a 9-9 draw after 30 minutes extra time. St Mary's won because they had scored a try in the final.

Garryowen had led 9-3 going into the final minutes of what was undoubtedly one of the best club matches I have ever seen. It whetted the appetite for an All-Ireland Cup, but the concept unfortunately did not materialise. Nor will it unless there is a cup competition based on the league.

IN MAY 1985, Garryowen ran a similar "All-Ireland Cup" competition to mark their centenary, and yet again Thomond Park was packed for the final which was won by Corinthians. That was the afternoon a very young Noel Mannion revealed his potential with an outstanding display.

This afternoon Shannon and Garryowen have a national stage to reveal their ability and their competitive spirit, and that needs no elaboration from me. I have no doubt that there will be many in Lansdowne Road this afternoon who will not have previously witnessed a Limerick derby. I hope they have a treat in store.

Shannon and Garryowen finished first and second in the league this season, so in that regard justice is being done by their appearance in the final. Not alone are they the two best teams in the country, but over this decade they have been the most consistently successful. Both clubs have been ever present in the first division. Only Cork Constitution and St Mary's College can lay similar claims.

Let us take Garryowen first. Their exploits in the Munster Senior Cup are without equal, having won the trophy no fewer than 35 times. Their league record since the competition started in 1990-91 is: second, champions, eighth, champions, fourth, second and seventh. In that time they have also won the Munster Senior Cup three times, in 1993, 1995 and 1997.

Shannon's league record is: fourth, second, seventh, eighth, champions, champions, champions. In that time they have won the Munster Senior Cup three times. In 1994-95 they became the first club to win the league with a 100 per cent record, the following season the first to win back-to-back titles and last season completed the three in a row. In 1995-96 they completed the cup and league double, the only club to do so.

That kind of success added to the fact that Young Munster won the title in 1993 is scarcely calculated to mean that people in Limerick such as Frank Hogan and Pat Murray have any reason to have any hang ups. On the contrary, they have good reason to be proud of their records and it is certainly worth listening to what they have to say and it should not be dismissed as the product of introverted thinking.

Through the years, Shannon and Garryowen have contested some truly great matches. They first met in the Munster Senior Cup in 1892, when Shannon competed in that competition as a junior club. Garryowen won that 31-8. They did not meet again until the semi-final of 1960 when Shannon, by then a senior club, won and went on to capture the cup for the first time. Shannon go into this afternoon's match not having lost to Garryowen in the league for five seasons.

That will not induce any element of complacency in Shannon, nor any inhibitions in Garryowen about a bogey. Limerick rugby is about reality and, of course, achievements which speak for themselves. And as Frank Hogan, the chairman of Garryowen, said earlier this season, "We have long ago learned just to ignore the begrudgers."

They can well afford to do so.