Floundering Neptune trawl for talent

Two defeats from two starts have prompted defending Budweiser Superleague champions Neptune to seek a replacement for American Chris Ward, who may yet get a last chance to prove his worth against the joint leaders, Notre Dame, tomorrow.

Ward has averaged just 13 points from his two league games so far, and he was benched for most of the closing stages in the defeats by Marian and Ballina.

His failure to influence the result of those games has left Neptune with little choice than to scout for other options - which are few and far between at this stage of the season.

The Cork club had been tracking the availability of former Spanish league player Joseph McLean, but Ballina secured his signature last week. Ironically, McLean played a major role in Neptune's defeat in Killala last Saturday, scoring 29 points on his Irish debut. Early this week, Neptune were back examining the marketplace for players and began pursuing another American, 6 ft 9 in centre Tyre Fields, who was cut from a club in the highly competitive Latvian league last week.

Fields was en route from the Baltic state to the United States yesterday evening, and the hope was that his flight home could be interrupted in London so that he could try out for Neptune in the game against Notre Dame tomorrow in Cork.

"It's a match that I feel is crucial to us, because if we win it we are back in the title race," said Neptune coach Mark Scannell yesterday. "Delta are one of the teams that look like being in contention this season, and if we can take points off them and then get a run going, we'll be back in the thick of it all again," he added.

"The players are so motivated, not least because Notre Dame beat us in the cup semi-final last January and also because we're bottom of the league, and that's no place for a club like ours," he stressed.

Neptune's squad is certain to be strengthened to some degree for the game against Notre Dame by the return of Tom O'Sullivan, while Gordon Fitzgerald will be back from Army duty in the Lebanon next week.

In contrast to Neptune, their opponents tomorrow are growing in confidence after three convincing wins in succession, including a 20-point victory last week over Marian, who had beaten Neptune a week earlier.

In other games, Star of the Sea, joint league leaders with Notre Dame, will take their unbeaten record to Killester tomorrow. There is a Kerry derby in Killarney, where Tralee are the visitors, and Marian are home to Dungannon, who have won two out of three in the campaign.

St Vincent's, who share third place in the table with the Tyrone side, are home to Ballina, who now look to have a formidable line-up following the acquisition of McLean and the return to full league action of Liam McHale.

In the ESB women's Division One, the only two unbeaten teams, Tolka Rovers and Wildcats, meet in the big game of the weekend on Sunday in Griffith Avenue. The Waterford women, who are already clear favourites to retain their league title, will undoubtedly be given a stern test by a team that has shown clear signs this year that they are about to shake off their under-achieving status of previous seasons, especially since the return of Irish international, Suzanne Maguire, to their squad.