A matter of simple survival

ALL-IRELAND LEAGUE/Division One: Either DLSP or Carlow will be relegated after today's matches. Johnny Watterson gauges the mood in both camps

Last year after their final match at Oakpark, they carried the players up to the makeshift dais in the shadow of the clubhouse and celebrated just how sweet life would be in Division One.

Carlow wallowed in the difficulty of it all, the enormity of the challenge. The hardcore, the campaign managers, the men of the community, and the diehards could hardly contain their smiles. Dare we say it, but Carlow then had a GAA feel, the same giddy, life-and-death immediacy of the parish.

They knew then that professionalism, the great leveller, was available to any consumer. Bought talent, prudently spliced with home grown, then dovetailed with a town only too willing to put a shoulder to the rugby wheel. It would be tough mixing it with the Shannons, Garryowens and Blackrocks they said, but it was worth a shot. They were dreamers, but the number crunchers among them were also realists and the possibilities that were scattered across the horizon 12 months ago have now become one. Carlow don't yet have the numbers they need to hold on to their Division One status.

Like DLSP, they are looking down the barrel and up the table. Two clubs moored above the already-relegated Young Munster are presented with the last match of the season to rescue wrecked hopes. DLSP hope their Ulster brothers, Ballymena, skin Carlow. If they do, it may be the first time rosaries will be offered in Dublin for the brethren of Eaton Park. Carlow don't care what happens in Kilternan, as long as the home side get nothing from Galwegians.

DLSP, removed from the Dublin hub and out on the Wicklow border, have 21 points, Carlow 22. Both teams have exactly the same points difference - minus 125 - and both need their fifth win of the season more critically than they ever needed their first.

Carlow's demise has been the more shocking. Their four wins and one draw came in their first six games. They beat a path to the Leinster Senior Cup final for the first time in their history, then fell at the final hurdle. Since beating Terenure on December 8th, the town haven't won or drawn a single match.

DLSP were dealt a tough hand from the beginning. Clontarf came in for coach Phil Werahiko, who had been with them for six years, and look what he did at Castle Avenue. Werahiko was replaced by Adrian Skeggs, who then saw Bermuda as a more attractive option than south county Dublin. Paddy Stewart, father of contracted Ulster player Shane, arrived from New Zealand to take them to their first win of the season against Cork Constitution. It was their fourth match of the campaign.

"We lost Shane Stephens over the summer. That was a huge blow. In all we lost 14 players and only brought in five," says club official Dave Lillis. "Then there were a few results that just went against us. We lost to Lansdowne by a point. Mary's scored in injury time to win the last match. Terenure we lost to by a point and our game against 'Rock was very close."

DLSP expect maybe 300 at Kilternan to turn out for the last shove against Galwegians while Carlow hope that up to 2,000 will swamp Oakpark and buoy them up with goodwill. But sob stories are an irritant to both clubs. They know they've cornered themselves.

"We've lived off scraps before and we will again," says DLSP coach Stewart. "We haven't changed our style. We will always have a go. The club is obviously at the rebuilding stage and we've had to bring through good young players a little early, but we have some experienced footballers. It is a question of building confidence and attitude. Undoubtedly we faced a lot of quality players coming back after Christmas to other clubs. But we knew that would happen.

"I haven't honestly given a great deal of thought about what might happen after today. We are focusing on winning and then focusing on the five points. My goal is purely today's match."

Stewart, a former policeman, who in his former life protected heads of state - "I'm not Kevin Costner," he insists - is hoping for his ancestral province to do him a big favour against Carlow. His father came from Antrim and Shane, currently injured, plays with Ballymena.

Carlow's decline has coincided with their number eight and captain Andy Melville's groin injury. A rampaging back rower, Melville is a try-scorer. But not match fit, he will sit out the game with the try-sniffing Bobby Baggott filling the number eight slot.

"We were fit and healthy at the start of the season and a couple of teams took us lightly," says Carlow coach Kim Thurbon. "Then we'd a couple of injuries to back rowers and the Senior Cup took a bit out of us. We just kept winning. I think we needed to rest instead of playing the Senior Cup."

While Thurbon had reason to be optimistic until December, the tempo of the league seemed to lift post-Christmas and Carlow, with little in reserve, were left beached.

"Every game we played we thought we could win," says Thurbon. "After Christmas, it seemed every team we played were better quality. The players are disappointed now because they never thought they weren't good enough to win. They never threw in the towel in any of the matches.

"A lot now depends on this game for the club. It is important that we stay up. But I believe that if it happened (relegation), within 24 hours we'd have contingency plans to get back up straight away. No one here would throw that opportunity away. We know that after next year, with the restructuring, it will be much more difficult to get back up into the top division."

It is DLSP's third year in Division One. Last season the club had to win their last five matches to hold on to elite status. The year before, a season's work ended with one final game which they had to win to stay up. You could say they have developed some expertise in the area. But winning this time might not be enough. Perilously, it is no longer in their hands.

"We would hope to get back up as quickly as possible. It would be imperative to hold on to our players and we'd be confident of doing that," says DLSP president Ian Hunter. "All we can do now is go out and win, do our best against Galwegians."

Carlow's game has been heavily promoted in the town. A half-decent day and the crowds will filter down to Oakpark. A possible hanging but a fair chance the team will slip the noose. Ballymena will have their four under-21 players available after blood pressures rose during the week at DLSP when it was thought that the IRFU had pulled them.

Raking through the ashes of the season, both DLSP and Carlow can draw up their own lists of "if-onlys" and wince. Carlow lost to DLSP by a point, 16-15. Against Buccaneers, they were 22 points up before surrendering to a 22-22 draw. In DLSP's last match, Victor Costello ran in for an injury-time try to snatch the match for St Mary's. Plenty of tough luck.

"They're a good side. Big," says Thurbon of Ballymena. "I know what they are all about."

No better time.