Leinster's leading side, Pembroke, face a pleasing enough match in the 47-team Nissan Irish Senior Cup first round on November 29th. Last year's Leinster champions and beaten cup finalists entertain St Brendan's/Phoenix Park at Serpentine Avenue.
Pembroke's early pace setting in Leinster would indicate that they are strong enough to go through to round two for a challenging game against Mossley at home.
Three Rock Rovers are up against it when YMCA visit Grange Road. Having leaked goals over the last couple of weeks, Rover's rebuilding hopes may still be at too delicate a stage even for this season's modest YMCA side.
Avoca have a difficult home game against Cork C of I and, if they win that game, they then travel to Cork to face Harlequins. In quite the reverse of last season, when Avoca beat Harlequins before being put out by C of I, the Dublin side will be tested from the very beginning. International Ali Dunne, who has been unavailable for C of I, could well make a cup return.
Holders Lisnagarvey are unlikely to slip up against St James's Gate when they meet at Blaris. Assuming that the Lisburn side go through, they will then have an interesting meeting with Dublin side Corinthians. While 'Garvey guile is always as well honed as their technique and talent, Corinthians, who would be relatively unknown to the Ulster team, could easily give them a difficult time at Whitechurch Road.
Suttonians, who the Leinster Branch hope will evangelise the northside with their new plastic surface to which they can now look forward, having beaten Avoca and St James Gate for the branch £100,000 grant, travel to face RUC in a difficult game. A draw here and a return game would be something to aspire to this time around.
A feature of this season's final is that for the first time in the cup's 104 year history, there will not be a replay in the event of a draw after 30 minutes extra time. Instead the match will be decided by a penalty stroke competition, thus bringing to an end the epic, two-day affairs which two years ago landed Avoca their first trophy after 200 minutes against Lisnagarvey. Nissan have also pledged their support for the competition for 1998-99, their fourth season.
