Byrne is left out by St Mary's

Emmet Byrne's sudden comedown, from the highs of his time with Leinster in the inter-pros and the European Cup, continue apace in the less rarefied surrounds of the AIB League with St Mary's.

First choice for much of Leinster's campaign at loose-head, on the back of which he was called into national squad sessions, Byrne remains on the replacements bench for St Mary's.

Despite the Templeogue club's third defeat of the Division One campaign in just five matches at Buccaneers last Saturday, leaving last year's semi-finalists with little margin for error over their remaining six games if they are to make the top four play-offs again, Byrne is again named on the bench for Saturday's visit of Blackrock.

Byrne retains a preference for the loose-head position, but after he was limited to a minor substitute's role there last Saturday due to a bout of flu, John Maher has been retained in that position. Not only has this continuing lack of match practice derailed his national ambitions, but it might also be jeopardising his provincial possibilities for next season.

St Mary's make only one change in their starting line-up to the team beaten 11-10 by Buccaneers, with last summer's recruit from Monkstown replacing Dan Bourke in the second-row as partner to Steve Jameson. International winger Denis Hickie is back in training and the club are hopeful he will return to action in the next two to three weeks.

Blackrock will delay finalising their side until Friday, pending the outcome of the disciplinary hearing into Paul Flavin's sending-off in the defeat to Clontarf last Saturday and a check on the first minute injury to Alan McGowan, though Andrew Boyd is still out.

Following that fine win at Blackrock, Clontarf have made just one change to their team, with Chilean scrum-half Sebastien Berti replacing Ronan O'Reilly at scrum-half due to the latter's facial injury in that win.

A similar range of bumps, bruises and strains ensure delayed selections elsewhere, although in the case of Terenure they hope to welcome back Kiwi back-row Gavin Hill and Leinster winger Girvan Dempsey, whose eye injury has cleared up after a week's break.

Galwegians coach Joe Healy has a number of injury problems to trouble him - aside from his team's continuing run of narrow defeats. Connacht lock Jimmy Duffy became the latest casualty in the defeat to Lansdowne when he was stretchered off following a bang on the head - actually resulting in neck muscle strains - while there is a doubt about the availability of Paul Casserley, hooker Kevin Tierney, who missed Saturday's game with a shoulder injury, and centre Mervyn Murphy, who suffered a knee injury in the last minute. It never rains but it pours.

As for the run of five defeats, Healy says: "I'd just love to get in front of a team early on. We're better than this. It's just a question of turning the corner. Last year we won a few games we'd no right to win but now we're caught in a vicious circle of defeats."

By comparison, his counterpart at Glenina for Saturday's bottom v top clash, Ballymena's Andre Bester, anticipates being able to name "more or less the same side" which has propelled his team to the summit of the table.

Both Corinthians, whose game goes ahead on Saturday instead of Sunday, and Galwegians are at home this weekend in advance of hosting the Irish squad on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning respectively - the first time ever in which an Irish international squad will be based in Connacht.