The men's cup winners, Notre Dame, will face their cup final opponents Neptune for the second time in six days at the National Arena in Tallaght tomorrow as they attempt to bridge the gap on the leaders, Star of the Sea.

Notre Dame's success has been viewed widely as a testament to their relatively recently acquired strength in depth, following the loss of two key players, Anthony Jenkins and Darren McGuinness, in the run up to the play-offs.

The extra court time which has, as a consequence, been afforded to players like Eamonn Gallagher, Albert Corrigan and Damien Sealy has yielded improved performances from all three, and Corrigan in particular played a key role in the cup semi-final and final successes, providing a credible rebounding alternative to Jenkins.

The form of Jenkins' direct replacement, Daniel Johnson, has also been encouraging. While he lacks physical presence under the boards, he is light on his feet and confident enough to make a fair contribution in offence, as evidenced by the combined total of 35 points in the two cup games.

But in spite of the impressive manner in which Notre Dame have overcome their recent difficulties, they are less potent looking than they were in the first half of the season.

Neptune have only one chance to win a national competition this season, but as they are currently second from the bottom of the Superleague, they probably have to win at least four of their last five games to qualify for the end of season Top Six Championship. So tomorrow's game in Tallaght will have a near cup tie significance, especially in view of the clash between Notre Dame and Star of the Sea in Belfast next week.

Star have spent this week pondering another cup play-off failure. In truth, they played very poorly in the third quarter of their semi-final against Notre Dame - with the extreme exception of Gareth McGuire who almost single-handedly took the match to overtime with a stunning performance.

The Belfast club now have to bury their acute sense of disappointment, because their opponents on Sunday, Killester, have won their last three league games, including a victory over Notre Dame. The women's cup winners, Wildcats, are on the brink of also securing the league title and to ensure that further success, they have only to win two of their last four games, all of which are against teams in the lower half of the table.