Connemara make Lansdowne debut

Playing at Lansdowne Road will be one of the principal rewards for both Trinity and Connemara All Blacks when they meet in the…

Playing at Lansdowne Road will be one of the principal rewards for both Trinity and Connemara All Blacks when they meet in the AIL Division Three final tomorrow. Of the Clifden side, only full back and former Connacht player Henry O'Toole has set foot in HQ before. A sprinkling of Trinity players have walked the grass but no more.

The students, like Connemara, favour an open running game and with two mobile packs, the match should be nothing less than easy on the eye. Trinity see 39-year-old O'Toole as one of Connemara's biggest threats, but they go into the game on level pegging, having drawn 21-21 when they met in Clifden at the beginning of the season.

Trinity lost out to Greystones by just one bonus point in the league proper and lost only two matches throughout their campaign. Connemara will look to their recent 23-14 win over Greystones as a confidence boost in their first ever all-Ireland final.

TRINITY: A Howell; A Jackson, S Kelly, J Quigley, D Johnston; D Crotty, C Curneen; C Sheehy, K Murphy, S Brophy, A Maher, P Raftery, D St George, H Hogan, R Wilson.

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CONNEMARA ALL BLACKS: H O'Toole; A Keogh, M Foyle, P O'Neill, P O'Toole; F O'Rourke, D Keogh; F Wood, T King, G King, F Madden, K Keogh, N Welch, B Keaney, G Burke.

Johnny Watterson

Johnny Watterson

Johnny Watterson is a sports writer with The Irish Times