Petrie can help Hermes to bridge the 14-year gap

WOMEN'S HOCKEY: Part one of the Loreto v Hermes trilogy takes place at Grange Road on Sunday (12.0) when the teams meet in a repeat of last season's Leinster Senior Cup final, the winners of which will be presented with the Jacqui Potter Memorial Trophy.

The teams play again in the league and in the Irish Senior Cup final over the next three weeks, and could also meet in the club finals in May.

Sarah Rand's extra-time winner last April gave Loreto their first success in the competition since 1977 and, on Sunday, Hermes will attempt to bridge precisely the same gap by winning their first Leinster Senior Cup since 1978.

Their opponents that day? Loreto. Both clubs' current managers, Joan Morgan and Sally Ann Fanagan, played in the final.

Sunday's game will mark Rachel Petrie's final appearance for Hermes before she returns home to New Zealand. Petrie, who won 56 caps for her country and played in the Sydney Olympics, will also have to relinquish her role as Irish assistant coach.

An indication of the current strength of the two clubs is that, between them, their players made up almost a third of the Irish panel announced by Kuper earlier this week - Loreto's Cathy McKean, Caitriona O'Kelly, Sarah Rand and Nikki Symmons and Hermes' Daphne Sixsmith, Jenny Burke, Tara Browne and Linda Caulfield - with only Pegasus having more representatives (five). Seven of the eight players should be in action on Sunday but Jenny Burke is still troubled by a back injury and is unlikely to be fit.

Meanwhile in Belfast Pegasus will attempt to retain the Ulster Shield when they play Ballymoney, the only team to take a point off them in the league this season.

The game will be Pegasus's first since Graham Quincey stepped down as coach. Quincey, who has been temporarily replaced by Eilish Macken, also retired as Ulster coach last weekend, finishing with an unbeaten record over 21 matches (in both senior and under-21 interprovincial tournaments).