Skerries set to tackle champions

Skerries Community College enjoy the honour of opposing the defending champions, Blackrock College, in the latter's first match in this season's Coca Cola Leinster Schools' Senior Cup.

Alan McGinty's charges can be expected to muster a spirited defence particularly given - no disrespect to first and second-round opponents - a relatively benign passage to the quarter-finals. There they can expect to meet Clongowes Wood College.

The victor is expected to meet St Mary's College, although the Rathmines school must first overcome a considerable hurdle in the second round in the form of St Michael's College.

Terenure College cast an ominous shadow over the bottom half of the draw and they are unlikely to be extended before a quarter-final clash with Cistercian College, Roscrea, last season's beaten finalists. The winner of this clash will probably meet Belvedere College, who should emerge from a four-way dispute at the bottom half of the draw.

Those who claim to know and correctly cherish their anonymity suggest that St Mary's College and Terenure College will grace the final at Lansdowne Road on St Patrick's Day. It couldn't be that straightforward!

Belvedere College shoulder the mantle of defending champions in the Coca Cola Leinster Schools' Junior Cup. They should progress to the semi-finals, accounting for St Michael's en route. The clash between St Mary's and Terenure in the second round is the highlight of the early games with the latter marginal favourites: Belvedere and Terenure for the semi-finals in the bottom half of the draw.

Kildare rivals Clongowes and Newbridge promise a titanic clash if both progress to the quarter-finals and Blackrock should oppose the victors at the penultimate stage.