UCD hopes depend entirely on referee's match report

UCD's hopes of getting another shot at the Leinster club hurling title rest solely with the contents of the referee's report. But the controversy over last Sunday's final in Portlaoise against James Stephens could yet rumble on for several more days.

UCD claim the Kilkenny club were awarded two points that had actually gone wide. The first of which is clearly shown on television footage to have done so.

While James Stephens ended up winning by a point, 1-13 to 1-12, UCD still firmly believe they deserve a replay. Although the Dublin club won't be lodging an official appeal, their manager Babs Keating has repeatedly called on the Kilkenny champions to offer a replay in the interest of fair play.

Yesterday the James Stephens secretary Mick Moore ruled out that option: "The officials were appointed, the match was played and the result should stand," he said.

So only the Leinster Council can progress the matter any further, and that will depend entirely on the exact contents of the report of match referee Barry Kelly. That is due to arrive at the Leinster Council offices this morning, and unless there is any reference to an error in the scorekeeping the result will stand.

Leinster Council chairman Nicky Brennan said last night that he wasn't in a position to speculate on the contents of the referee's report, nor any possible course of action once those contents are known.

"We have to get the referee's report before we can make any comment on this," said Brennan. "But whatever is in that report is sacrosanct."

Brennan, however, said he wasn't personally aware of any previous incident where the Leinster Council was forced to order a replay because of problems with the scorekeeping.

"There was that case with the Leinster football championship match between Laois and Carlow back in 1995, where Laois in fact offered a replay because of a disputed point. But that offer came from Laois, and I know that the Leinster Council were later rapped on the knuckles for actually sanctioning the replay, because such a decision was in fact out of order."

The TV evidence produced by TG4 clearly shows that the first of the controversial points had gone off the post and wide while footage of the second disputed point is inconclusive.

Meanwhile, both the Limerick county hurling and football team jerseys will sport the slogan "Sporting Limerick" for the 2005 season. Limerick-born businessman JP McManus is sponsoring the county's Gaelic games teams for the next three years so the usual sponsor's logo has been dispensed with.