Finalists delay naming sides

Shannon have delayed the selection of their side to defend the club's AIB League crown in Saturday's historic final against fellow Limerick side Garryowen at Lansdowne Road. The holders have no injury worries and the only likely cause of debate for the selectors is at scrum-half where young Frank McNamara surprisingly replaced normal first choice Gavin Russell in last Saturday's semi-final against St Mary's.

Interest in the encounter is intense with Shannon providing a fleet of 40 buses at a subsidised rate of £10 per adult in addition to the couple of trains which CIE have added to their normal schedule.

Garryowen, likewise, will delay their selection until some time later in the week, although Philip Danaher remained very confident that their influential number eight and leading try-scorer David Wallace will be fit for the final after recovering from the sprained ankle which forced his departure in Sunday's win over Young Munster.

"He was walking around fine yesterday and I expect him to be back training by Thursday," said the Garryowen coach, whose pressing selectorial concerns are likely to be between Pat Humphreys and Paul Cunningham, and Stephen McIvor and Tom Tierney at scrum-half.

Danaher was his usual relaxed self yesterday and maintained that "the team who won the league (Shannon) should have been given the pot and gone home." That said, he agrees that the semi-finals and final have added a cutting edge to what would otherwise have been another anti-climactic club season.

Asked if this was the biggest game for Garryowen in his time with the club as player and coach, the former Irish captain didn't need long to think about it. "Yes, it is. After all, it's not often you go to Lansdowne Road for an All-Ireland decider."

The rest of the weekend is the usual end-of-season pot-pourri of junior or underage finals, sprinkled with ties at various stages of seriously disrupted provincial cup campaigns. (Garryowen, meantime, had an unproductive meeting on Monday evening with the Munster Branch, who reiterated their stance that the club have been rightly removed from the Munster Senior Cup for failing to fulfil their first-round fixture with Cork Constitution. The club are now seeking a meeting with the IRFU).

As a curtain raiser to Saturday's main event, Lansdowne Road will host the All-Ireland under-18 final between Corinthians and Bruff, the Limerick junior club who are also playing Cork Constitution in the Munster Senior Cup quarterfinals the following day.

The Smithwicks Provincial Towns Cup final between Naas and Kilkenny takes place in Enniscorthy on Sunday while Old Belvedere and Blackrock contest the McCorry Cup (under-19) final in Donnybrook on Monday evening.

The Ulster and Munster Cups reach their quarter-final stages this weekend, with Shannon and Dungannon obliged to play their respective ties the following Wednesday. Both the Munster and Connacht Cups remain on course for semi-finals the weekend after next and the finals on May 9th and 10th.

The situation in Leinster is comparatively vague, with the bulk of the eight second round ties still scheduled for the weekend after next and, as yet, no dates fixed for the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.

A couple of second-round ties have been brought forward to this weekend. Terenure, who host UCD on Friday, show their intent by making just one change from the side which completed their AIL campaign - Donal Hegarty replacing Peter Bruce at loosehead - while also leaving a vacancy in the second-row.

The situation regarding the AIL second division relegation issue remains clouded in doubt with still no white smoke from the IRFU regarding the cancelled Wanderers-Buccaneers game. The anticipated announcement yesterday has again been deferred.

Terenure College: C Clarke; G Dempsey, R O'Connor, M Smyth, P Walsh; S Cullen, D Hegarty; D Hyland, J Blaney, J Campbell, R Sheriff, AN Other, C Potts, D O'Donoghue, B Kavanagh.

Swansea's international forward Colin Charvis has warned the Welsh Rugby Union that more top players could move to England. Charvis says that the WRU's new salary-capping scheme will not work and added: "It will send leading players or their team-mates to England depending on whose salaries are capped."