Captains already looking forward to next season

Johnny Watterson talks to Peter O'Connell of UL Bohemians and Belfast Harlequins' Rhys Botha ahead of Saturday's showdown

Belfast Harlequins, by the breadth of their success this year, are expected to crown a near perfect season with the Division Two title at Lansdowne Road on Saturday.

A spectacle for the slickest team in the division to show their moves in front of what promises to be a festival crowd might appear to slight UL Bohemians. But from the Limerick side's point of view, gunslingers inevitably meet their match. Heavier favourites have been known to perish on finals day.

While there is little to indicate that the 52-3 defeat of Bohemians in the league campaign by the Belfast side can be reversed, Bohemians will come into the match with a fresh attitude and are also hardened by the experience they have gathered since their annihilation.

Already assured of promotion, captain Peter O'Connell views Lansdowne Road as the beginning of a new journey rather than the continuation of an old one.

"We wouldn't look at the final as being unrealistic for us to win," says O'Connell. "When we played them in the season a few things didn't go our way early on. They picked off scores from it. The lineout wasn't functioning, a couple of balls were dropped, a few wrong options taken.

"Being a young side, the heads dropped that day. By half-time the game was beyond our reach.

"We're going into this match more positive. We've been promoted. We've done the tough stuff and we are going to try to redeem ourselves, just give it a lash."

Harlequins, stiffened up this season by the arrival of former Ballymena coach Andre Bester and several South African players including captain Rhys Botha, find the tag of mega favourites unwelcome, but no great surprise given they won the league with two matches in hand and accumulated 549 points from 15 games compared to second-placed Bohemians' 301-point tally. By the end of it all, Harlequins were showboating.

"It is hard to escape being the strong favourites because we beat them by 40 or 50 points during the season. But we haven't changed anything," says Botha.

"Andre is drilling us hard now, as he was at the beginning of the season. He is a very intense kind of guy. He is very demanding of the boys and they have responded very well to his coaching technique.

"It was actually difficult to keep momentum going. After we beat Bohemians, we then played Barnhall and lost because the boys were saying: 'we've won the league.' Andre has got that out of us. I promise you that. Now we're back to where we were," adds Botha.

The Barnhall win over Harlequins was their only defeat of the year, and occurred when many of their regulars were absent. With Ulster-contracted players now available, Harlequins - not unlike Bohemians - will be hoping to put out a marker for next year on the biggest stage in the country.

"We are a young team and an enthusiastic team," says O'Connell. "Next year it will be tough. We've only one player, Martin McPhail, who has a part-time Connacht contract and apart from that we've lads from underage academies and other guys who have put in their time in Division Two and Division Three rugby.

"But we hope to hold our place next year and, please God, improve on that when the lads mature more."

In many ways, the two promoted teams meeting each other in the gala final is a fitting end. But their backgrounds are stark. Harlequins - who next season will be Belfast's only Division One club - face, in terms of success at the top, the fourth-ranked club in Limerick.

"Sure, it's difficult competing against the Shannons, the Garryowens and the Young Munsters," says O'Connell. "But it is up to us to hold on to players. It is difficult but there is a long tradition in Bohs. We might not have reached our full potential in the past, but we're on the way.

"This year our aim was to get promoted. Next year it will be to stay in the first division."

More difficult than it appears these days.