Clontarf will be confident of taking a step closer to the Ulster Bank League title they won for the first time in their history in 2014 when they host a UCD side at Castle Avenue on Saturday that they have beaten twice during the league stage of the campaign.
They will also be keen to expunge the memory of last season’s 18-17 defeat to Lansdowne in the final. Andy Wood’s charges finished at the top of the table and welcome a UCD that has struggled towards the back end of the season.
Greater contrast
There couldn’t be a much greater contrast between the protagonists with Clontarf winning their last eight matches while UCD have lost five on the bounce. The home side beat the Students 24-16 at the Belfield Bowl last September and last weekend completed the double with a 25-12 success at Castle Avenue.
Wood admitted: “It’s a semi-final, another step towards what we set out to do at the start of the season. If we get what we need to get right and a good performance comes off the back of it, the result will follow hopefully.”
In the other semi-final Cork Constitution host Young Munster at Temple Hill.
Munsters’ captain Ger Slattery doesn’t feel that the venue will have a material effect on the outcome, a view substantiated by the fact that the Limerick club won at Temple Hill earlier in the season.
Indeed they won both of the league games between the clubs by just a solitary point. Munsters prevailed 11-10 at home in November and repeated the trick (18-17) on their travels in January.
Slattery said: “It’s two evenly-matched teams and I think the venue might even be irrelevant. There’s always a great battle between us and Con, there was only a point in it when they played them this year in the league.”
Con have won their last five matches with Munsters on a run of eight wins from their last nine matches.
SATURDAY'S ULSTER BANK LEAGUE FIXTURES
Division 1A semi-finals (2.30): Clontarf v UCD, Castle Avenue; Cork Constitution v Young Munster, Temple Hill.
Division 1A promotion playoffs (2.30): Ballynahinch v Buccaneers, Ballymacarn Park; Dublin University v Ballymena, College Park.
Division 1B promotion playoffs (2.30): Banbridge v UCC, Rifle Park; Blackrock College v Cashel, Stradbrook.
Division 2A/2B promotion playoff: Sunday's Well v Greystones, Musgrave Park (2.30).
Division 2B/2C promotion playoff: Tullamore v Wanderers, Spollanstown (2.30).
Round Robin Qualifying series (2.30): Clonmel v Bangor, Clonmel; Enniscorthy v Westport, Enniscorthy.
