"It's a two-horse race, that's all," says St Mary's captain Trevor Brennan. No nonsense Brennan, plain and simple. Reacting to the bookies who have installed the Templeville Road side as favourites for tomorrow's All-Ireland League final, Brennan refuses to chew on that nugget.

"Both sides have good packs and a good backline. It will be down to a ball. Being favourites doesn't put any more pressure on us. The side that wins will be the one who wants it most on the day," he says.

Lansdowne captain Dave O'Mahony, who was with Brennan at the pre-match get-together yesterday at Lansdowne Road, was talking up St Mary's: "To be fair to Mary's they've had a more consistent league campaign," he says. "They've scored more tries and have less tries scored against them so it's not surprising they're favourites and I think it's fair enough."

O'Mahony is right. So far this season St Mary's have conceded nine tries, three of them in the last game. Defensively they have shown a great reluctance to giving away scores.

Brennan, revelling in his first season as captain of a senior team, looks to the final as a palliative. Left out of Ireland's summer Tour to Canada, USA and Argentina, only a national league title would ease the sting. He believes Brent Pope's influence can swing it.

"I think Brent has brought a mental toughness to the side as well as a physical toughness that we possibly wouldn't have had over the last two years. We choked in two semi-finals against Shannon and Garryowen," he says.

"There is nothing physical. We had the players. We had all the strengths but yet on the day we were going out and basically botching it up. Definitely there is a hardness in the squad this year from one to 15."

O'Mahony, however uses St Mary's international dimension as a source of Lansdowne inspiration, quickly drawing a picture of the wannabes facing up to the pin-up boys in blue - inside centre Shane Horgan aside, that is. A sense of unity underpinned with a newfound confidence is Lansdowne's present driving force. O'Mahony is set to further strengthen it.

"Mary's would have more names from one to eight. Everyone talks about Mal, Victor, Trevor whereas we have a solid pack," he says. "We don't focus on one particular player whereas maybe Mary's do. We've a good workmanlike pack, a strong front row and the back row work well as a unit. We've a good all-round team," he suggests.

"The semi-final was our best game and that's a source of confidence. We've begun to gel and we've been able to continue for the last couple of months with the same players. That's been important."

Brennan sees the Lansdowne front eight as being strong with con considerable danger lurking behind, notably from Horgan and fullback Gordon D'Arcy, both of whom can pop up in the line unannounced.

O'Mahony said: "A couple of our players were going through a tough patch at the beginning. Reggie (Corrigan) was and so was Barry Everitt and they've turned their games around. Gordon D'Arcy too. We were waiting to find the best position for Shane, whether it was inside or outside centre and we'd Australian Gus Hamilton only arriving in the club in November. All of that was difficult to bed down.

"We've put a run together now. But come Saturday that goes out the window. It's a one-off," says the Lansdowne captain sounding very like . . . well, Trevor.