RSA [Alan Murray] T20 Competition

Over the past few weeks the RSA [Alan Murray] T20 competition has been moving along a little bit below the radar. Tonight we have the fifth [and for some South Leinster teams the last] round of the competition before the finals. At this point we have no team guaranteed a place.

There are five matches scheduled for this evening [Terenure v Pembroke and Clontarf v Rush are down for Thursday] and in the Northern half of the league The Hills [v Phoenix], Clontarf [v Balbriggan] and North County [v Malahide] will all be favourites to close the gap on Rush who are leading with 4/4. Assuming [and in T20 that is always a big risk] the favourites all win tonight then we will have four teams bunched within one win of each other. With a game in hand and a healthy Net Run Rate, Rush are in poll position but they have Clontarf and North County to play, two difficult matches, and they may have to win one of these or at least avoid a heavy defeat to qualify.  The Hills probably have the easiest run in and if they can win tonight and again next week against Malahide, they have a clear path to the finals.

In South Leinster there are four teams fighting for two spots. Railway and Pembroke have three wins each. Railway have a game in hand but it is against Merrion who are third with two wins. If Railway lose tonight [v Leinster] the encounter between the two could well decide who qualifies for the final. Merrion [who play YMCA tonight] have a healthy NRR and will hope that if they can catch either of the top two teams on points that they will qualify. In the other game this evening [Leinster v Railway], Leinster could still qualify if they can catch Pembroke [who would have to lose to Terenure] and Merrion lose their last two matches. A win for Railway may not mathematically guarantee qualification for finals – but it would require some strange results in other matches to deny them. 

So a number of permutations, but things should be much clearer after this evening’s round of matches. We hope to be able to follow a number of the games tonight on the Match Centre.