The RSA Irish Senior and National Cups kick off today with 16 fixtures involving Leinster teams. Early season form is important but it can be difficult to compare results across the different provincial competitions. Travelling is always a factor and with most fixtures in Round 1 involving one team that has had to travel from ‘out of state’, having home advantage is important.
Nowhere is more daunting than the trip to Donemana, which Terenure will have to undertake, where to play on their steeply sloping ground is a challenge for all and a memory for any overseas player.
Merrion also have a difficult tie against Coleraine who are early season leaders in the North West. They bring a close to full side with only Nathan Rowe and Damian Poder missing. Schoolboy Tom Stanton makes the trip and may well get his RISC debut. Eglington entertain Phoenix in what looks like an even contest, though home advantage may count in the end. There is an easier home draw for YMCA against Brigade in the remaining NW v Leinster clash while Pembrkoe make the trip to Derry and should be too strong for Championship side [D2] - Creavedonnell
There are 4 head to heads between Leinster and Northern Union teams with home teams The Hills and Clontarf fancied to go through against Instonians and Ballymena respectively. North Down on the other hand may prove too strong for Leinster in Rathmines. Finally Railway Union make the relatively short journey up the M1 and play Downpatrick who are currently leading D2 in the Northern leagues. Anything is possible here but if Railway perform as they can then they shoud win.
In the RSA National Cup there are home ties for Rush [Templepatrick], Mullingar [Cooke Collegians], Laois [Killyclooney], and Civil Service [Newbuildings] and away matches for Dundrum [Woodvale], Balbriggan [Muchamore], North Kildare [St Johnston] and Malahide [Drummond]. Given the mixture of strengths and some difficult away fixtures, Leinster may do well to have more than a few teams in the second round.
150 years ago, according to Lawrence’s Handbook of Cricket in Ireland [Published 1865] there were cricket clubs in 24 counties on the island of Ireland. As Emmet Riordan pointed out in the Irish Times yesterday, there are now clubs from 17 different countries competing in the two national competitions. Cricket will never again have the dominant position among teams sports that it enjoyed in the middle of the Nineteenth Century but it is, finally, once again a sport played in all corners of the island.