New league format has desired effect

With the newly formatted All-Ireland Senior League due to get under way on March 24th with a preliminary match between the Connacht champions and the Munster runners-up, as many as 15 teams in the four provinces remain in contention for a place in the tournament.

The first legs of the quarterfinals take place on March 31st and will pit the third-placed team in Ulster against the Leinster champions, third in Leinster against the Munster champions, the winners of the preliminary match against the Ulster champions and the runners-up in Leinster against the runners-up in Ulster. The four winners advance to the round-robin play-offs which will be held at Belfield between April 27th and 29th.

So far the new format appears to be having the desired effect on the four leagues with so many teams still with plenty to play for. In Ulster Pegasus would appear to have the league sewn up, at least five teams have a chance of a top-three finish. Portadown and Ards are currently in position but third-placed Ballymoney have four games in hand on both.

Munster, too, is wide open - Harlequins are well placed to retain their title but UCC, Bandon and the University of Limerick are battling it out for second place. NUIG, having won all their games so far, should emerge as Connacht champions while the title race between Leinster's Loreto and Hermes could well go down to the final day of the season.

Loreto and Hermes will be favourites to win through to the Leinster Senior Cup final when they meet UCD and Loreto II, respectively, in Sunday's semi-finals. This weekend also sees the semi-finals of the Irish Junior Cup with Three Rock Ladies at home to Catholic Institute and Enniscorthy hosting Ballyclare in Waterford.

Cork Harlequins, meanwhile, have been drawn in the same pool as Orsundsbro (Sweden) and Collegians (Gibraltar) for May's European Cup Winners Cup (B Division) in Vienna. Newtown (Wales), Stade Francais (France) and AHTC (Austria) make up Pool B.